


let's make a night you won't remember (i'll be the one you won't forget)

by shesbreathless



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, too hot to handle au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:20:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 60,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24760699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shesbreathless/pseuds/shesbreathless
Summary: “Seriously? There’s nothing about spending two weeks in a resort on the beach full of hot, single, willing people for free that you’d enjoy?”A "Too Hot To Handle" AU, with more brain cells but just as ridiculous.
Relationships: Nico Kim/Levi Schmitt
Comments: 84
Kudos: 189





	1. Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still alive! It's been so long that I had to remember how to navigate the site, that's so sad.  
> Anyway, a couple of notes before you start reading: the couples in this story are not going to follow canon, mostly because I don't care, sorry not sorry. Also, everyone is roughly the same age, for the same reason as before.  
> If some things don't make sense or if there are some bad mistakes it's because I've been writing this for a while and not always with the best mood. This year has already been a lot and it's only June, so I both apologize and claim the right for this to make as little sense as it pleases.  
> Anyway, I'm going to try and upload every day until the chapters are over! I hope you enjoy reading :)

“This is offensive, honestly.”

Taryn rolls her eyes behind her phone. Levi nudges her ankles with the vacuum cleaner and she lifts her legs, propping them on the coffee table in front of her.

“You’re just offended because you know it’s true,” Taryn shrugs.

Levi turns the machine off and leans on it, one hand on the handle and the other on his hip. He stares down at Taryn until she meets his gaze, then slowly lifts one eyebrow and points to his own face.

“Does this look like somebody who wants to spend two weeks in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of complete strangers?” he asks, speaking slowly and clearly.

She doesn’t even bat an eye. “ _That_ looks somebody who clearly needs it.”

“Okay, do you actually want me to throw something at you?”

Taryn scoffs and puts her phone down, crossing her arms over her chest and watching Levi move around the room.

“Let’s analyse the situation,” she starts. “I brought you a phenomenal suggestion and you immediately started cleaning like a nervous monkey. That’s suspicious.”

Levi glares at her so hard that she actually feels it, but the fact that he’s dusting the leaves of one of their house plants makes it all a bit less threatening.

He must realize that it’s making her right, so he slowly stops his movements and tries to look as inconspicuous as he can. Taryn just laughs at him.

“Look, I’m just not comfortable with it,” Levi finally admits.

“With what?” Taryn throws her arms in the air. “Having fun?”

Levi’s fingers itch for him to reach for the vacuum, but he resists the urge. Instead, he walks over to the couch and flops down next to Taryn, letting his head fall to rest on the backrest.

“Do you want to hear more about it so you can decide?” Taryn asks offers.

He shakes his head, but she must either take it for actually yes, or she just downright ignores it.

“It’s a beautiful resort on the beach,” she starts, sighing dreamily. “Filled with people that are not only stunning, but interesting and, you know, cool.”

“How do you know they’ll be cool?” Levi lifts an eyebrow.

“I was told so.”

“Yeah, about that, how exactly did you find out about this thing?”

Taryn looks down at her nails and blows on them. “I have my ways.”

“That doesn’t sound worrying at all,” Levi scoffs.

“I’m gonna go there,” Taryn suddenly decides.

Levi squints in suspicion. “Go where?”

“The truth.”

They stare at each other for a couple of tense seconds. Then, Levi nods his head once.

“You know nothing,” he challenges.

Taryn smirks. “I know enough to make you cry. I also know that you have literally nothing better to do.”

Levi doesn’t answer. It is true that he could go if he wanted, but he doesn’t want to. Taryn has to accept that, whether she likes it or not.

“I don’t need that to have fun,” he says on a resigned breath.

“Although I disagree,” Taryn quickly lifts her hands to dodge the pillow Levi actually throws at her. “You’ve got to at least try.”

“But why should I waste two weeks of my life on something I know I won’t like?” Levi argues.

Taryn huffs like this conversation is physically tiring her. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do! There’s nothing about it I’d enjoy.”

“Seriously? There’s nothing about spending two weeks in a resort on the beach full of hot, single, willing people for free that you’d enjoy?”

Levi takes a couple of seconds to think. The truth is, it does sound like the best thing that could happen to him right now, but the idea of trying to find his way into a group of people that are bound to be much more attractive than he is, and who because of this won’t want anything to do with him doesn’t sound like fun.

He doesn’t tell Taryn that, though. From what she says, she already knows anyway.

“I’m not going,” he decides, because giving in is not something he does.

“I’m not gonna stop asking until you agree to it,” Taryn challenges.

“I won’t agree to it,” Levi repeats, then goes back to cleaning.

-

It takes about three hours for the incessant texting to get on Levi’s nerves.

He’s already cleaned the bathroom, changed his sheets and even dusted the top of his wardrobe, and he’s been trying to find he window cleaning product, unsuccessfully. They probably never even owned it, but he still rummages around in the cabinets, hoping that it magically appears.

Still, he can’t ignore the buzzing coming from his phone every thirty seconds or so. He could just turn it off, but part of him doesn’t want him to. Again, it’d be way too close to admitting defeat.

He lasts another good ten minutes just staring at the wall, then shrugs and throws himself across the room to get his phone.

When he finally gives in and looks at it, he has to scroll through more than two hundred pictures of the same sunny beach, which he presumes is the resort they’re supposed to go to.

The instant he finishes that thought marks the point he realizes that he’s actually considering it.

The second he opens the texts is also the moment Taryn starts screaming from her room.

“Get your swimsuits ready!” she yells, suddenly appearing in Levi’s doorway. “We’re going to paradise!”

Levi laughs and avoids the bikini bra that gets thrown in his face, but still sits back up and tries to give himself some composure. He clears his throat and looks at Taryn with his head held high, one hand over the middle of his chest.

“I’m only doing this to show you I will hate it and, hence, prove I was right,” he says.

“We’ll see,” Taryn winks.

Levi throws the bathing suit back towards her, but he can’t hide the way he’s smiling. It still doesn’t sit right with him, stomach twisting nervously, but it doesn’t look like he has a choice anymore. Probably never had one.

-

The second Levi agrees to this madness, it feels like time starts passing twice as quickly. One moment he’s at home, newly bought window cleaning product in hand, and the next he’s on a plane, Taryn chatting away excitedly next to him.

He has a huge suitcase full of all of his summer clothes with him and a stomach full of butterflies, so nervous that he doesn’t notice how much he’s bouncing his leg until Taryn slaps it for him and tells him to shut up.

“We’re going on holiday, not to war,” she points out.

“That’s debatable,” Levi sighs, looking out the window.

Beneath them is only concrete and grey buildings, not even a square of sand or water in sight. Levi would question where exactly Taryn is taking him, but she’s already threatened to push him off the plane if he dares complaining at all.

He doesn’t want to go on this dumb retreat, but he doesn’t think dying for it is worth it, so he shuts up.

There’s a guy waiting just for them when they exit the airport, who lets them climb into a car with tinted windows and drives them away with barely a greeting.

Levi shoots a glance at Taryn, but he finds her smiling so happily that he doesn’t feel like ruining her mood just for the sake of complaining. Instead, he smiles back and tries to breathe through the anxiety still running through him.

Things don’t slow down until their suitcases have been taken out of their hands and they’ve been dropped off at the entrance of a huge building.

“Should we go in?” Taryn asks, one hand already on the door handle.

“Sure,” Levi nods.

The inside of the building is big and airy, all decorated in light colours and beachy furniture, which gives it a whole different feel than the outside. There also has to be something being pumped through the vents, because Levi feels twice as relaxed as soon as he steps in.

Two times zero is still zero, but at least he’s stopped feeling like he’s going to throw up at any moment.

“Kitchen,” Taryn announces, popping her head into one room.

“Bathrooms,” Levi confirms, pointing towards the opposite side of the hallway.

There’s only one room left to check out, which must obviously lead to their private bedrooms, but when Levi tries to open the door, he finds it to be locked.

He frowns down at the handle and then up at Taryn, but she’s standing a few steps away, reading something on a piece of paper stuck to the wall next to them.

“What does it say?” he asks.

“That we can use the bathroom to change and then to go wait outside by the pool,” she explains.

“Change into what?”

“Our best bathing suit,” Taryn reads.

A pang of anxiety shoots through Levi, stronger than ever, when he gets reminded where he is and what he’s going to have to live through for the next two weeks. Taryn doesn’t look bothered in the slightest, but Levi honestly just wants to go home.

“Do we have to?” he mumbles.

Levi is expecting Taryn to laugh at him or at least tell him to stop complaining, but instead she just smiles and nods her head towards the bathroom.

“It just means we should get comfortable; you can wear whatever you want. Or don’t want,” she winks. “I told you, this place is cool.”

“So you’ve said,” Levi sighs, but still follows her.

He ends up putting on a pair of basic black swimming trunks that only reach the middle of his thighs and a mostly sheer white tank top over it. He’s as uncovered as he feels comfortable at the moment, which is a nice compromise.

Taryn, on the other hand, strips down without a second thought and puts on a bright pink swimming suit, looking like a piece of bubble gum in the best way possible.

“You look nice,” he does tell her.

“Thanks,” she blows him a kiss, then looks him over. “You too.”

Levi looks down at himself and shrugs. “I’m comfortable, at least.”

Taryn rolls her eyes but she’s smiling as she grabs his hand and pulls him towards the door that leads to what Levi imagines is the backyard, where the pool they’re supposed to wait by is.

Except that it isn’t just a backyard; it’s a huge spread of the greenest grass, complete with palm trees, a nicely sized pool, gazebos in every corner to provide shade, and the most breathtaking view of the oceanside that Levi has ever experienced.

“How is this hidden in the middle of the city?” Levi asks, breathless.

Taryn doesn’t answer him, mostly because she’s already on the other side of the yard, squealing and pointing at every exciting thing she sees.

“There’s a fucking bonfire place thing!” she yells.

“I see it,” Levi laughs.

“And there’s a bar!” she continues, voice getting increasingly higher.

“I know!” Levi matches her tone.

“Levi!” Taryn screams at him. “This is amazing!”

He does have to agree. Suddenly, the thought of spending two weeks in here doesn’t seem so bad, even if he has to share it with who knows how many people. He’s sure that he can manage to find a corner to hide away in and hope nobody comes to bother him.

Taryn brings him out of his thoughts by grabbing his hand again and pulling him closer to the pool, by the lounging chairs that line one side of it. On a low table there are ten glasses full of some kind of colourful cocktail.

“Do you think it’s for ten people?” Levi asks.

“No, it’s obviously just for the two of us.”

Levi rolls his eyes. “I meant if there are actually going to be ten people.”

“I already told you that,” Taryn sighs, taking a sip of her drink.

“You did not specify any numbers.”

“Yes, I did!”

“You absolutely did not, or I wouldn’t have agreed to it.”

“Why, are you too special to hang out with nine other people?”

They’re basically yelling in each other’s face when they hear footsteps come closer from behind them.

“Seems like somebody is already having fun,” a deep voice muses.

Both Taryn and Levi turn around on their heels, eyes wide and cheeks burning with embarrassment. Levi opens his mouth to say something, but the words die on his tongue.

In front of him stand the most gorgeous couple of people he’s seen in a long time. He hasn’t been seeing any people other than Taryn and his mom for months, but that’s beside the point.

“Hi, I’m Link,” one of them says.

He offers a hand out, and both Taryn and Levi step forward to shake it, saying their names at the same time. They bump against each other and laugh nervously as the two men look on, amused at their failed attempt at coordination.

Luckily, Link has pity on them, and just cover both of their hands with his, shaking them all at once.

“Alright,” the other man chuckles. “I’m Jackson.”

This time they take turns in greeting him. When they’re done they’re left staring at each other, possibly even more awkward than before. Levi tries to break the tension by pointing to the table of drinks.

“The retreat’s gods have supplied us with alcohol,” he points out.

Link and Jackson hum in pleased surprise and grab a glass each, while Taryn quickly slaps Levi on the back. Levi can’t even blame her; he has no idea why he said it like that. He’s way more nervous than he thought he would be.

“So, this place is amazing,” Jackson says, looking around them.

“You can say that,” Taryn nods.

Levi is afraid she’s going to start screaming again, but they’re spared when they hear somebody else step out into the garden.

“Hey everybody!”

A girl with long, dark hair runs down to reach them, waving excitedly. Her eyes light up as soon as she can get a close look at their small group, and Levi can’t blame her.

Now that their backs are turned and the embarrassment has been overcome by her entrance, Levi can take a couple of seconds to appreciate how amazing everybody looks. It does make him feel quite underqualified, but he can also set that aside for a second to just gawk.

“I’m Josephine, but you can call me Jo,” the girl introduces herself.

She’s smiley and excited, and she doesn’t let the conversation die down even for a second, so they don’t get the chance to go back to awkwardly looking at each other, which is nice. Everybody is all over her anyway, so Levi doesn’t have to worry about it.

After her, another couple walks in, a guy who’s Levi’s height called Casey and another girl, Dahlia. Levi likes them the best so far, and he reminds himself to not run away from them as much as he would from the others.

“This is a nice spread of people,” Casey notices.

It actually is. Levi looks the still incomplete group over and smiles to himself: it’s obvious that whoever decided who was going to be here did a great job. The fact that Taryn and he got to go without a question should have tipped him off, but it’s nice to see in person.

While they’re all chatting amongst themselves, two more people walk in, announcing themselves while still at the door.

“What’s up!”

Everybody turns towards them, and Levi can feel Taryn and Casey on each side stiffen up. He smirks to himself as they rush to introduce themselves to the new arrivals, who turn out to be called Carina and Isaac.

At this point the group has become quite substantial, people breaking into smaller groups to talk more easily, all of them happily sipping on their drinks.

Everybody has a sparkle in their eye, striking poses and twirling their hair, biting their lips and batting their lashes. Levi, on the other hand, stays uncomfortably in his spot and observes them.

It’s not that he doesn’t think everybody isn’t gorgeous, but he also doesn’t really feel like turning into a peacock to possibly impress any of them. Nobody seems to be that interested in talking to him as well, so that helps the whole feeling out of place thing.

The thought of spending the two weeks hidden away seems more appealing by the second.

There’s a second, though, just a fleeting one, in which he thinks that maybe coming here was worth it: one of the girls whistles and a laugh comes from the entrance. Levi follows the sound, and his mouth drops open the tiniest bit, but still enough for him to blush furiously red.

Coming towards them is a tall, muscular, and just drop-dead gorgeous man. He has dark hair that gets ruffled by the wind and a blinding smile that makes more than a couple of hearts in the room skip a beat.

“Well, hi,” the newest, and last, arrival smiles at all of them. “I’m Nico.”

There are a couple of moments in which nobody speaks, then everybody starts talking over one another, saying hi and introducing themselves. Tall, dark and handsome just chuckles and shakes their hands, even sneaks in a couple of hugs before stepping back and putting his hands on his hips. His eyes settle on Levi.

“What about you?” he asks.

“What about me?” Levi repeats, lifting an eyebrow.

“Are you just going to stand there?” Nico laughs.

Everybody’s eyes are on them, and Levi feels more uncomfortable by the second. The blush on his cheeks quickly goes from bashfulness to pure embarrassment at being called out like that.

“Would you prefer I stood somewhere else?” is what he chooses to say.

Nico is visibly taken aback, but he quickly recovers by rubbing the back of his neck and shrugging.

“Just wanted to say hi,” he says, putting his hands up.

“Could have just said hi,” Levi puts on the fakest smile he can muster up.

Somebody clears their throat, somebody else shuffles their feet. Levi and Nico keep staring at each other, their silent battle only broken by Taryn elbowing Levi in the side so hard that the breath is knocked out of him.

“What the hell?” he hisses.

“Yeah, exactly what I was going to say,” she angrily whispers back. “Knock it off.”

Levi wants to argue, but he realizes that everybody else is probably thinking the same thing. He nods and stands down, looking at his feet as chatter picks back up.

That was awful, then. And uncalled for. He has no idea what was going through his head, but he’s pretty sure that he’s just ruined any slim chance of anybody being interested in him even in the slightest.

He kind of wants to point out to Taryn that he was right when he said he wouldn’t enjoy being here, but she might actually rip his head off. Besides, she’s busy talking to Carina and Dahlia, so he won’t interrupt her.

So he stands by himself just outside the group of people excitedly getting to know each other, trying to come up with a way out of the next two weeks. Maybe if he just slowly walked backwards, he could reach the exit before anybody noticed…

He doesn’t get to even try, because what sounds like the loudest doorbell ever invented startles all of them into silence. Link breaks off from the group and walks towards the front door, coming back a few seconds later with a furrowed expression.

“What is it?” Jo asks him.

“It’s a message,” he explains, then quickly reads through it. “Uh.”

“What?” Jackson asks impatiently.

“It says that we must leave our phone in the box by the front door, and we’ll get it back when we leave. And that the key for the bedroom is in the kitchen. Oh, and we’re locked in.”

“Bedroom? Singular?” Casey asks.

“Locked in?!” Levi talks over him.

Link just nods. Well, there goes Levi’s plan for a quiet escape from this place.

“So we’re basically prisoners here,” Isaac comments.

Nico laughs. “I kind of don’t mind, considering the company.”

Everybody giggles and goes back to hair-twirling, but Levi just rolls his eyes. Insufferable.

“Let’s go check out the bedrooms then,” he suggests, pointing back towards the main building.

“It does say bedroom, as in just one,” Link confirms Casey’s question from earlier.

Levi starts sweating. This can’t be real. He can feel the blood leave his face as the door is opened wider and he can see the glimpse of one king sized bed, and then another one, and then another one. There are six of them in total, and ten people to fill them.

“This is going to be fun,” Taryn smiles.

Pleased hums go around the room. Levi rubs both hands down his face and sighs.

-

It doesn’t take long for everybody to start settling in. Their suitcases had indeed been carried into the bedroom and set by a closet big enough for all of them, so they all take the time to unpack and set up their own private stations by the sinks in the bathroom.

They have to share that as well, and the thought makes Levi’s stomach flip uncomfortably, so he decides not to think about it by claiming a lounging chair in the shade for himself and wasting his time there.

If this is all he has to do for two weeks, he thinks he’ll manage. Maybe if it doesn’t rain he can even sleep out here.

Even though it does get quite lonely quite fast, seeing everybody else already having fun and getting to know each other, but he’ll live. If he closes his eyes and focuses on the sound of the waver he can ignore the laughs and conversation going on behind him.

Taryn sits by his side all afternoon, going on and on about how great everything is and how much fun they’re all going to have. She already has her eye on a girl, she says, but she won’t tell him who it is. Levi already knows it’s Carina, but he won’t ruin her fantasy of it being a surprise.

He stays mostly quiet, because even after Taryn leaves to go mingle with the others, nobody comes to sit with him. It’s probably pretentious to just sit there and wait for people to come to him, but Levi can’t be bothered.

If nobody likes him, he doesn’t like them. That’s a pretty easy decision to make.

What’s not as easy is ignoring the background of the other nine people when the doorbell rings again and Taryn comes over to physically drag Levi over to the bonfire area.

“We got another message!” she tells him excitedly.

Levi takes a second to wonder if this is actually what is life has become, sitting in the sun with a bunch of strangers and waiting for some superior power to slide letters under the door for them to read. Then Taryn pinches his arm and he’s forced to focus on the task at hand.

“It really doesn’t bother anybody that there’s someone out there telling us to do…” he skims the letter again. “ _This?_ ”

The activity of the night is some sort of game, where one person is supposed to stand, blindfolded, in the middle of the group, and someone else has to come up to them and touch them however they want. The blindfolded person then has to try and guess who it was.

Everyone seems pretty excited at the prospect, but Levi once again finds that he would very much like to just disappear and never come back.

“Alright, everybody sit down!” Taryn shouts over the chatter. “Who wants to go first?”

They all sit comfortably on the many couches around the fire, just Link staying up to cover his eyes with the blindfold he procured seemingly out of nowhere. When he’s done, he puts his hands on his hips and smiles in their general direction.

“So, who wants a piece of this?” he asks, shimmying his shoulders.

A quiet but nervous laugh goes around the yard, and nobody moves for a few seconds. Then, apparently surprising even himself, Casey stands up and walks the couple of steps it takes to plaster himself to Link’s front.

Link laughs and stumbles back; it seems pretty obvious that the alcohol that’s been flowing freely is doing its job in making everyone loose and inclined to doing whatever it is that Casey and Link are doing.

Link’s shirt blows in the breeze as Casey runs a single finger along the line of his collarbones and then steps back, sitting down to wait for Link to try and guess who the light touch came from.

“I don’t know,” he chuckles, then goes quiet and quickly glances at Dahlia. “Was it you?”

She just shakes her head and shrugs, so Link has to sit back down without finding out who it actually was. The next person to stand up is Carina, who winks exaggeratedly at all of them before putting the blindfold on.

Levi feels Taryn start to stand up, but Jackson beats her to it, walking up to Carina and brushing his fingers down her arm, grabbing her hand and leading her into a spin. Taryn sighs loudly and Levi pats a reassuring hand on her back, guiding her to take another sip of her drink.

After Carina guesses at first try that it was Jackson but he pretends not to know what she’s talking about, Levi loses track of who does what.

All he knows is that Jo smacks a loud kiss right on Isaac’s mouth and then giggles so loud about it that there is really no choice in who to guess and Taryn gets an impromptu lap dance by Dahlia, before the glass of pure alcohol he’s been forced into holding starts working on Levi as well.

Casey stands up and Levi doesn’t think twice about it; he rushes to his feet and stumbles forward to quickly and awkwardly drop a kiss on Casey’s cheek, then another one for good measure.

Somebody behind him coos at them and Levi feels himself blush, so he hangs his head and sits back down, heart beating so hard that he can hear it in his ears.

Casey takes the blindfold off and immediately looks at Levi, but doesn’t call him out. Instead, he goes back to his own spot and smiles at the expectant faces around him. Finally he has some mercy on them and gently pats Jo’s face, who’s sitting next to him.

“Don’t worry, I know you have the biggest crush on me,” he says with a sweet voice.

Jo laughs and pushes him away, only for Casey to grab her arm and pull her closer into a hug.

Everyone is quick to move on, but Levi stays with his gaze fixed on a random spot, willing his heart to calm down, until somebody nudges him and tells him that it’s his turn.

There’s nothing he would like to be doing less than this, but he still nods and stands up, smoothing his clothes down and quickly wrapping the blindfold over his eyes.

Levi is totally prepared to stand there forever, totally exposed and vulnerable, waiting for the person who definitely don’t stand up for him. It’s not that he doesn’t think he’s worth it, but he’s pretty sure that nobody thinks of him like that in here.

It is what it is, but right now it means that if nothing happens he’s going to throw himself into the ocean and become a mermaid. A merman. Whatever, anything to get away.

He’s about to give up and pull the blindfold down, when he feels a big hand being wrapped around his bicep. Levi gasps and stills, somebody leaning in and brushing their lips over his jawline and then down to suck a kiss into the side of Levi’s neck.

Somebody hollers, but Levi is too busy reminding himself how to breathe to mind them.

The touch is gone as fast as it had appeared, and when Levi finally takes off the blindfold it looks like nobody had moved at all. He swallows and looks around, trying to come up with a way to not look like an idiot again.

“So, who do you think it was?” Taryn helps him.

Levi bites his lower lip, eyes scanning the nine faces looking back at him with interest. He lifts a hand to brush over where the skin of his neck is still tingling and forces himself to focus for just long enough.

He lingers a second too long on Nico, sitting on an armchair by himself with his arms spread along the back, a smile on his face that says he doesn’t have a single care in the world. He winks when he notices Levi’s gaze on him.

“You already know, why do you need me to tell you?” Levi tries.

A couple of people laugh and roll their eyes at him, but they let him get away with it. Levi clears his throat and quickly glances to the side, just out of curiosity, just to see. He gets startled when he finds another pair of eyes staring right back at him.

He’s conflicted. Objectively, this is an opportunity he should be grateful for. Even if nobody likes him and he has to spend two weeks sunbathing next to the pool by himself, it’s still way better than anything he normally would be doing.

As he feels the hair on the back of his neck stand up under Nico’s insistent stare, though, he begins to wonder if maybe he’ll get to have a more interesting experience than he thinks.

He shakes himself out of his thoughts when Nico actually stands up and starts putting the blindfold on, and Levi gets reminded that time didn’t stop, and they’re still playing this really weird game.

“C’mon,” Taryn nudges him.

Levi looks at her like she’s grown a second head. “What?”

“You know you want to,” she sing-songs.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Levi insists.

She glares at him and shakes her head, even crossing her arms over her chest to show just how much she doesn’t approve of this. Levi sticks his tongue out at her and copies her posture, the two of them having an impromptu staring contest while the game goes on right next to them.

Levi catches a glimpse of blond hair out of the corner of his eye, which he discovers is Isaac grabbing one of Nico’s hands and putting it directly on his own ass. Nico laughs, but doesn’t give up the opportunity to give him a good squeeze.

Everybody erupts into screams and cheers, and Levi immediately switches back to the mindset that does nothing but remind him that he really doesn’t like this.

As soon as everybody’s turn as come and gone, the music gets turned up and seemingly endless cocktails start appearing, which means that there isn’t a single person in the building that is completely sober, Levi included. Not that they had been before, but they’re all definitely on the way to drunk now.

The game seems to have awakened every last hormone around, because it doesn’t take long for fun dancing to turn into full on grinding by the pool. Jo grabs Carina and holds her so close that even Levi ends up feeling something spark low in his belly.

That might also have something to do with the fact that he can feel another pair of dark eyes on him, again, still, unrelenting. He doesn’t look back.

It happens slowly, but from his perch on the back of the couch Levi can see a few couples come together and then slowly break off from the group to disappear behind the many well-hidden corners this place provides, all drunkenly kissing and laughing loudly.

When they come back blushing and with their hair totally tousled they’re welcomed by cheers and whistles, which makes everything ten times more obnoxious than it needs to be.

Levi catches the beginning of the smallest yawn on Taryn’s face, and immediately takes advantage of the chance to drag her towards the bedroom and kickstart the stream of people giving in to sleep.

As suspected, they barely manage to wash their faces and brush their teeth before they’re being kicked out of the bathroom, but it just means that they get to pick their bed first.

It makes him feel like a petulant child, but Levi hangs onto Taryn and never lets go, lest for some reason she decides to leave him to fend for himself in this literal jungle, but she doesn’t complain about it. It’s probably because she knows perfectly well how he’s feeling.

They pick one of the beds that’s closest to the windows, then lie down and wait for everybody else to do the same. It really doesn’t take long, the mixture of the sun and endless alcohol draining everyone’s energy.

Jackson is about to turn the lights off and get into bed himself, when the doorbell goes off one more time.

Confused glances get exchanged as Jackson steps out to retrieve the latest message directed at the whole group. He quickly skims the page before reading it out loud, but before he can get to it his eyes go wide and his expression falls.

“What does it say?” Link asks him.

Jackson just passes the letter over. Link opens his mouth, then immediately closes it and sighs.

“Well?” Jo yells from her cocoon under the covers. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Link clears his throat, then reads them the message.

“We hope you all enjoyed your evening of mindless fun, and we hope you did ~~everyone~~ everything you wanted, because starting from this moment, any kind of sexual activity, kissing and self-gratification included, is forbidden. You’ll get a strike for every infraction of the rule; upon the third strike, you’ll be asked to leave. Whoever resists the temptation and gets to the end will be awarded. Keep in mind, though, that every infraction makes everybody lose a part of the prize. Good night!”

Every single person in the room gasps out loud. Levi falls back on his side of the bed and laughs.

As it turns out, this is going to be more fun than anticipated.


	2. Day 2

The first thing Levi hears as soon as he wakes up is the sound of somebody snoring heavily.

It melts into the last images of a dream that keeps escaping him the more he tries to think about it, and it brings him back to reality like somebody pushing him down a cliff with no warning.

It’s maybe a bit dramatic for the first thing in the morning, but he feels like he has a right to doing what he wants.

That’s exactly why he quickly pushes down the blankets and gets out of bed, briefly stopping in the bathroom for the quickest shower of his life, then walks through the kitchen to grab two bananas and some water, and finally steps out to go sit by the pool.

He picks a lounging chair that’s mostly in the sun, but the cool breeze of the early morning makes up for it. Levi sits down and opens one banana, watching the ocean in the distance and breathing in the salty air.

The sound of the waves is rhythmic enough that it pushes down and away all of Levi’s confused and confusing thoughts, leaving him free to just munch on his banana.

Making sense of the stuff floating around in his head is not that hard, anyway; he doesn’t want to be here, but he’s known that from the first second Taryn had mentioned it to him. He’d let her convince him, and now he’s paying for it. As predicted.

He could definitely try to ease up on the sour attitude, and he does periodically tell himself to just shut up, but it’s not that easy. As soon as he finds himself in the middle of a situation that makes him uncomfortable, he gets defensive and just has to protect himself.

Against what, he’s not sure himself.

One banana down and the second halfway to being done, Levi lets his head drop back against the chair and his eyes fall shut.

He would probably fall asleep, if after a while of pure, blissful silence he didn’t hear somebody open the door to the yard and walk barefoot to where he is.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty.”

Levi cracks one eye open and looks up, only to find Casey smiling down at him.

“Good morning,” Levi says. “I wasn’t sleeping.”

“Obviously,” Casey rolls his eyes, sitting down on the chair next to him.

“Alright, then, I’m speaking to you in my sleep,” Levi shrugs.

Casey picks at the banana peel Levi had left at the bottom of his chair, a small smile on his lips. Levi stops to look at him while he’s not paying attention, taking in the blue eyes and the light hair, the small frame and the smart twinkle in his gaze.

“So,” Casey starts.

“So?” Levi echoes.

“I know it was you yesterday,” Casey just says it.

Levi could try to pretend he doesn’t understand what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t really feel like it. Instead, he smiles serenely and takes another bite out of the banana.

“Do you?”

Casey lifts one eyebrow, his face the perfect representation of the word ‘unimpressed’. He reaches for Levi’s face and drags one finger over the stubble on his cheek.

“I would recognize this face anywhere,” he whispers.

There are a couple of seconds in which they just stare at each other, the sound of still waking nature faded to the background. Then the moment breaks, both of them cracking up and falling back against the chairs.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Levi gently shoves him.

“So we agree,” Casey tilts his head to the side. “This is not a thing.”

Levi chuckles and shakes his head. “Not that you’re not, like, good looking…”

Casey rolls his eyes and pretends to gag. “I know I’m gorgeous, and you probably couldn’t resist wanting to smooch me.”

“Yeah,” Levi nods. “Something like that.

Their laughter eventually dies down, and they’re left just sitting there and staring at the now much brighter and noisier stretch of beach in front of them, much like Levi had been earlier, only this time there’s two of them.

“I was just really nervous and you seemed the least likely to punch me in the face,” Levi explains after a while.

“Nobody would have punched you,” Casey frowns. “We’re all here for one reason.”

Levi shrugs. “Yeah, maybe. Well, that reason probably changed last night.”

Casey groans dramatically and throws his arms up and behind his head. “Don’t remind me. I just want to cry.”

He looks actually upset, but Levi doesn’t share the feeling. It’s pretty obvious that everyone else had come here with a plan in mind, and last night’s message had pretty much ruined everything for them.

For Levi, on the other hand, things didn’t really change that much. He still just wants to leave.

“Looks like we’re going to have to actually interact with each other,” he jokes.

Casey doesn’t seem to either get or appreciate it. He props himself up with his elbows and squints at Levi with a look that says he sees right through his bullshit.

“You must be dying to know,” he winks.

Levi frowns. “What are you talking about?”

“I know who got up for you last night,” Casey teases.

The thought to ask him had briefly passed through Levi, but he’d quickly decided that he doesn’t want to know. He also strongly believes that Casey would never actually tell him.

“Good for you,” Levi shrugs. “Banana?”

He breaks off the last piece and offers half of it to Casey, who looks at it mistrustfully for a second, then accepts it and takes a bite out of it.

“I think you already know who it is, anyway,” he says after he pops the last of it in his mouth.

As if on cue, noises can be heard from inside the house, meaning that more people must have woken up. The day is about to start and Levi is not sure he can stand it.

“Good morning, babes!” a deep voice calls from the door.

Levi rolls his eyes so hard that he’s afraid they might get stuck like that. He finishes his banana, throws the peel towards the other one, and fully stretches out on the chair.

“He might surprise you,” Casey sighs, copying him.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Levi closes his eyes against the sun.

“Yeah, you keep saying that,” Casey chuckles.

Somebody runs through the garden and jumps into the pool, but luckily the chairs Casey and he are sitting on are hidden away enough that the splash doesn’t even begin to reach them.

“I say it because it’s true,” Levi continues.

Music gets turned on and played loudly through the house’s speakers, and more people join them outdoors. The day is fully starting.

“We’ll see how long that lasts,” Casey finally says.

Levi doesn’t answer him. He just cracks one eye open and glances towards the pool, accidentally catching Nico looking back at him with a dumb smirk on his lips. Levi looks away, turning over so the sun hits the backs of his legs.

He can’t wait for this to end.

-

The afternoon brings the first signs of how incredibly dysfunctional and ultimately stupid this whole thing is.

“Denying it won’t take back the fact that you did it!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Oh, c’mon, we all heard it.”

Levi cringes and shakes his head to himself. From what he could understand from the screams, someone made some… compromising noises last night and everybody else is trying to find out who it was like they’re in an episode of Scooby Doo.

The plan for the rest of the day had been to sunbathe and nap in the shade, but Taryn had come to specifically grab him and bring him over right to the middle of the drama, so now he gets to sit front row for this. How fun.

“It’s not my fault if you have hallucinations,” Jackson rolls his eyes.

“Just admit it and we’ll all be on our merry way,” Dahlia shrugs.

“No, we won’t!” Link argues. “It’s unacceptable.”

Levi stars looking around for ways he can run away without being noticed, but instead he finds Nico’s eyes, once again, always ready to meet his.

He waits a couple of seconds to look away, just because. Nico nods his head towards the fighting group and mouths _ridiculous_ , to which Levi smiles and shrugs.

“What are you smiling about?”

The silence that falls after that forces Levi to turn back. What he finds waiting for him is eight pairs of eyes staring back at him.

“Me?” he wonders out loud, pointing to himself.

“Yeah,” Jo rolls her eyes. “Don’t think we didn’t see you two this morning.”

“Us?” Levi frowns, his finger waving between Casey and him.

Taryn slaps him up the back of the head. Levi turns around to try and give back just as hard, but the others are still looking at him weird, like they’re actually expecting an answer.

“We didn’t do anything,” he tries.

“Well, someone did!” Dahlia interrupts him.

She has something in her hands, a piece of paper that looks like the letters they’ve been receiving through the door.

“What does that say?” Levi asks.

Dahlia passes him the letter, and he gets the confirmation that someone is being accused of already having broken the rules, but it doesn’t say who in particular, and most importantly it doesn’t specify what the crime was.

Levi folds the paper in half and uses it to fan himself. “I plead innocent.”

“I stand by that,” Casey steps in.

Another few seconds of silence go by. Levi looks uncomfortably between all the still unfamiliar faces, waiting for some kind of verdict. How is this his life at the moment, he finds himself wondering.

“Why should we believe you?” Jo squints.

Levi squints back and throws the paper towards her. “Why shouldn’t you?”

“Because you’ve done nothing but roll your eyes at us since the first moment you saw us. We have every reason to believe you want to sabotage us.”

That actually takes a few seconds for Levi to fully grasp. He feels immediate guilt wash over him, because it is true that he’s been more difficult than he necessarily had to be, and he doesn’t really have a reason for it other than the fact that he doesn’t feel at ease here.

“I didn’t think it was that noticeable,” he mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, it was,” Link joins in. “We just want to be friends and you look like you already hate us.”

Levi nods, but he can feel how hard he’s blushing. He definitely doesn’t like being called out like this in front of everybody, but he maybe, kind of, probably deserves it.

Taryn snickering away behind him seems to think so as well.

“I’m sorry for that,” Levi tries. “I didn’t mean to… be like that.”

“Didn’t you?”

Levi turns towards the voice. It’s Nico, sitting just like he had been last night, arms spread behind him along the back of the couch, looking like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

“No, I didn’t,” Levi confirms.

Nico just nods, holding Levi’s gaze for a couple seconds too long. In the background, someone says something, which is followed by a loud chorus of swear words and insults.

By the time Levi looks over he can’t make out who actually was the cause of the commotion, but all that matters is that they’ve stopped giving Levi shit.

He still can’t shake the feeling of being in the wrong, though. He’s perfectly aware of how it must look on the outside when he feels like he wants to be anywhere but here, and apparently everybody realized that as well.

Maybe he could lay off just a bit and try to make the best out of this opportunity. Maybe he’d actually have fun then. Maybe he could even get something nice out of this.

He wants to look to the side, but he doesn’t. Instead, he nods to himself and decides to change his attitude, even if just the tiniest bit. Maybe it’ll lead to something good. Maybe.

-

They never find out who it actually was to break the rules, because Isaac says something that sets Link off, and they start arguing about that instead. Levi sits back and lets the sound of their voices fade to the back of his mind as he chews on the side of his thumb and stares off into the distance.

Breath in, breath out. He can enjoy two weeks on the beach surrounded by hot people, he’s got it in himself. It’s a thing he can do. He possesses the ability to get through this.

If he says it enough times, he’ll start to believe it at some point, he’s sure.

As if she can read his mind, Taryn flicks Levi’s ear and then, not satisfied, bumps their shoulders together.

“What?” he turns to face her.

“Did you hear anything that was said?” she lifts an eyebrow.

Levi looks around and realizes that half the people that were on the couches earlier have now left, and are nowhere to be found.

“Where did everyone go?” he wonders out loud.

Taryn shakes her head, obviously disappointed by him. Levi is going to make her pay for all of this.

“It’s date night,” she explains.

“Meaning…”

“I swear you used to be smart,” Taryn sighs.

Levi tugs on her ponytail. “Shut up, I was just distracted.”

“Yeah,” she smirks. “They did you pretty dirty. I thought you would, I don’t know, rip their head off.”

Normally, that would have been the case. Levi would have usually defended himself against even the most accurate of accusations, but something about this time felt different. He just didn’t feel like arguing when it was so obvious that he was in the wrong.

“Well, I didn’t,” Levi shrugs. “Are you gonna tell me what date night is?”

Taryn looks at him with a smile on her face that means she doesn’t trust him one bit, but she’s gracious enough not to comment on it.

“Some people got coupled up and get to go on a date tonight,” she finally explains.

“Oh. Good for them. Do we get to do something else?”

“You got picked as well.”

Levi waits a couple of seconds for the obvious joke to come up, but it never does. Taryn is still smiling, but she looks as serious as can be.

“I’m going on a date?” Levi asks for confirmation, and Taryn nods. “With who?”

“Go find out,” Taryn nods towards the beach.

“What, like, right now? Dressed like this?”

“It’s dinner on the beach, not a red carpet,” Taryn rolls her eyes.

It’s so sudden and unexpected that all Levi can do is stand up and stumble towards the general direction of the beach. Taryn just watches him go with a wave of her fingers and a smug smile on her face.

Alright, Levi’s going on a date. He smooths his hands down his front to try and make his clothes look like they haven’t been worn all day, then actually looks for where he’s supposed to be going.

The stretch of beach that’s reserved for the use of the retreat isn’t endless, but it’s big enough that in the dark Levi can’t tell where it ends. What he can see, though, is a bonfire lit in the distance, surrounded by a couple of lounging chairs and somebody sitting on one.

Levi briefly wonders how many lounging chairs there actually are in this place.

“Hey! Over here!”

Squinting at the flailing figure, Levi realizes that they’re talking to him. He starts walking towards them, then stops dead in his tracks when he comes close enough and realizes that it’s Nico. He quickly puts two and two together: he’s going to go on a date on the beach with Nico.

How far would he get if he jumped in the sea and started swimming?

“Hi,” Nico smiles when he gets close. “You look nice.”

Levi tries his best to mirror the smile. It doesn’t work, but Nico doesn’t look deterred by that.

“Want to sit down?” Nico asks him.

“Sure.”

He plops down on the chair opposite Nico’s and looks anywhere but at him. It’s so, so awkward.

“So,” Nico starts. “How are you?”

Levi feels the need to scoff at the small talk, but he restrains himself. Instead, he chooses to take a deep breath, lean back on his hands and look at the fire between them.

“I think I’m still getting used to this place,” Levi answers.

“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy,” Nico chuckles, then looks at Levi from head to toe. “You fit in quite well, though.”

Levi makes a face at that. He definitely doesn’t feel that way.

“You’re the one who looks like a surfer,” he shrugs.

Nico smiles like he just got the best news of his life.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he winks.

There’s a second in which Levi considers, once again, being an ass and not going along with this just for the sake of it, but he ultimately decides against it. He’s tired and apparently other people care about him not being miserable here, so he’s going to try.

He metaphorically shrugs off the tension and awkwardness, and looks at Nico from under his lashes.

“I’ll allow it,” he smiles.

Nico winks. “I’m glad. Are you hungry?”

Levi notices the table that stands between them for the first time. There’s a huge tray full of strawberries on it, complete with bowls of melted chocolate on the side. Nico picks one out and offers it to Levi, dangling it in front of his face.

He wants to accept it, even if just not to ruin the moment, but he physically can’t.

“I, um, I’m allergic to strawberries,” Levi admits.

Nico pulls the fruit back like it’s burned him. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

Levi smiles kindly. “You couldn’t have known. It’s okay.”

“Right,” Nico nods. “Want some chocolate, then?”

That sounds like a better option. Levi looks around for something that looks like a spoon, but they were provided with nothing of the sort.

Once again, he finds himself wondering who set this up and when, but he lets it go. It’s probably better not to know.

He opens his mouth to say that it’s okay, he’s not hungry or something like that, but when he looks up he finds that Nico has stuck a finger in the chocolate and he’s bringing it towards his own mouth. Noticing Levi’s eyes on him, he stops just in time before actually touching his finger.

“I just figured that it would be the fastest way to eat it,” Nico mumbles.

“Makes sense,” Levi helps him.

He goes for the bowl himself, dipping his finger in and then bringing it up to wrap his lips around the tip. It’s chocolate, nothing to go mad about, but when Levi looks over at him Nico goes wide eyed and splutters before stuffing his mouth with a strawberry.

“Good?” Levi asks him.

Nico makes a noise that’s probably meant to be a confirmation, but he’s still chewing on the strawberry. His finger is still coated in chocolate, and in general he looks a bit like a hot mess. Levi feels less alone.

They eat in silence for a few minutes, Nico visibly trying his best not to choke on his strawberries and Levi making a point of licking every drop of chocolate that he picks up. It would all be hilarious if it weren’t so terribly awkward.

As far as dates go, it could be worse, Levi guesses. Nico could be gross and rude, but instead he just seems to be a bit flustered. Levi can deal with flustered. He knows flustered.

What he doesn’t know is how to deal with the way Nico immediately looks down at Levi’s lips when they go back to facing each other.

“You’ve got, huh,” Nico says.

“What?”

“Here.”

Nico reaches over and rubs a thumb right over the corner of Levi’s mouth, presumably cleaning away some chocolate.

Levi hates how much he reacts as soon as he touches him. He leans into Nico’s touch and waits for him to be satisfied with his work, then watches with wide eyes and the sound of his heart in his ears as Nico sucks on his own thumb.

“It’s good,” Nico comments.

“Yeah, I’ve eaten it,” Levi answers.

Nico chuckles, but it’s too breathless to be a proper laugh. Neither of then moves away. Levi slowly looks down at Nico’s lips, full and stained red by the strawberries.

There’s a choice somewhere in the middle of all that, but he misses the point in which he makes it.

Levi starts leaning in because why not, because he’s been having alcohol all day and he feels loose with it, because maybe he just wants to.

It’s Nico who smiles and leans back.

“Didn’t you say you were allergic?”

Levi blinks at him. In half a second he feels all the embarrassment and insecurity that he’d managed to ignore rush over him all over again, so he shuffles back and sits on the side of the couch that’s as far from Nico as possible.

Then he remembers that Nico asked him a question.

“I am, yeah, I am allergic.”

“Right,” Nico nods. “Wouldn’t want to, you know, cause problems.”

Levi hums, then clears his throat and looks away. He can still see out of the corner of his eye that Nico keeps staring at his profile, a small smile on his face.

“It’s also kind of against the rules,” Levi reminds the both of them.

“Oh, yeah,” Nico sounds like he had actually forgotten. “Although, don’t, um…”

Cheeks burning from more than the amount of sunbathing he’s already managed to do today, Levi bites his lower lip and meets Nico’s eyes. They’re already trained on him, gaze sure and unwavering.

“Yeah?” Levi urges him on.

Nico smiles his most mischievous smile. “Let’s save it for later.”

Levi chokes on his own saliva a little bit, nodding to show that he’s understood Nico, who in turn chuckles and takes another bite out of his strawberry.

It’s probably the air here, or maybe it’s something in the food, because Levi would usually never be this straight-forward without really getting to know the person he’s with first, but he doesn’t fight it. In fact, he embraces it.

What happens in the retreat stays in the retreat. Even if nothing actually happened, it’s the thought that counts.

The moment mostly passed, Levi pulls his legs up and hugs his knees to his chest, resting his back against the arm of the couch. The fire is still going next to them, warming his side pleasantly and bathing both of them in a soft light.

“Alright,” Levi decides, propping his chin on his knees. “Let’s have a real conversation.”

“Were we having a fake conversation before?” Nico laughs.

He jokes, but he still lies down on his own couch, legs hanging off its end and arms crossed behind his head.

“It wasn’t a real one,” Levi shrugs.

Nico considers it for a bit, then nods. “Okay. What do you want to talk about?”

Levi thinks about it for a couple of seconds. He already knows the basics, because he’d overheard Nico talking to Jo the previous day: orthopaedic surgeon, gay, a good cook. All in all, a nice spread of characteristics. Levi wants some real information, though.

“Why did you come here?” he finally chooses to ask.

“I actually came with Link, we work together,” Nico answers without missing a beat. “He thought I would benefit from it.”

“How come?”

Nico actually blushes. “Because he’d noticed my complete lack of a love life.”

“Same, actually,” Levi laughs. “Taryn dragged me here. Promised I would have fun.”

“Are you?”

Levi smiles. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Is there any way I can help with that?”

The sound of the waves crashing on the shore is so loud that it fills the silence between their sentences, and it’s all so nice that once again, Levi doesn’t feel like being sarcastic. Still, he won’t give in so easily.

“Yeah, you can tell me what you think of this whole no sex thing.”

Nico immediately changes expression, as if he’d forgotten about it and the mere reminder pains him.

“I mean, it’s not ideal,” he tries. “I think we all came here with a specific idea of how it would go.”

Levi feels inexplicably disappointed. Not one for letting that show, though, he just nods and picks at the hem of his swimming trunks.

“Yeah, that’s a bummer,” he mumbles, then dares looking over at Nico. “Will that make you enjoy it less?”

“I think I’ll be fine,” Nico smiles, then seems to brace himself for a question. “Can I be honest?”

“Of course.”

“You’re the most interesting person in here.”

Levi flushes all over and clears his throat to buy himself some time, but the truth is that he has no idea what’s going on. It feels way too fast and way too slow at the same time, and it’s kind of making his head spin.

Nico doesn’t even help him, happy to just sit there and watch him suffer.

“Thank you,” he finally answers. “I haven’t decided what I think of you yet, but you seem cool.”

“That’s fair,” Nico laughs.

Silence falls over them, but it’s a weirdly comfortable one. Nico looks away to push around the bits of the strawberries he didn’t eat, but Levi keeps looking at him.

He’s objectively handsome, and for some reason he seems to have taken a liking to Levi, even though he’s probably been the least likeable and approachable person in here so far. Then again, Casey seemed to like him too, so there has to be something about him.

“Hey.”

Levi blinks, and finds Nico looking at him with a small smile. He’d been staring quite obviously, but Nico doesn’t look weirded out, so Levi just smiles back and takes a deep breath.

“Do you want to go back?” Nico asks.

It’s dark on the beach, and a cool breeze has picked up. Levi hugs his own legs tighter and shivers lightly, goosebumps raising over his arms.

“Not really,” Levi admits. “But maybe we should. It’s getting cold and late.”

“You’re right. Let’s go, then.”

Nico stands up and offers Levi a hand, helping him up as well. Levi smiles as a way to say thanks, then starts leading the way back to the main building.

He has his arms wrapped tight around himself, shuffling his feet through the sand to hurry against the cold. Nico must notice, because after a couple of seconds Levi feels an arm sliding over and around his shoulders.

“Alright?” Nico asks.

Levi definitely appreciates the consideration, so much so that he reaches up and wraps his fingers around Nico’s wrist.

“Alright,” he confirms.

It’s crazy and absolutely way too soon, but it feels nice to get this kind of attention, and Levi is not going to deprive himself of it. Also, he can’t think of any reason why Nico would want to lead him on for nothing, so he’ll allow himself to trust just this once.

They walk quickly, but they only break their half hug when they reach the door to the bedroom.

“Well, good night,” Nico smiles. “Dream a bit of me.”

Levi rolls his eyes, but doesn’t bother to hide his own smile. He pushes the door open and makes a beeline for Taryn and his bed, quickly sliding under the covers.

Taryn, who’s already in there, lifts an eyebrow at him. “Aren’t you even gonna change?”

“No,” Levi shoots back, quickly pulling the blanket over his head.

“Somebody had a good night,” Taryn smirks, joining him.

“Shut up,” Levi immediately hisses. “Literally everybody can hear you.”

Taryn shoves him. “Well, did you?”

Levi bites his lower lip, then nods. “Yeah, it was nice.”

“Lucky little shit,” Taryn hits him once on the shoulder. “And to think that you didn’t even want to come.”

Pouting and rubbing his arm, Levi sticks his tongue out at her and turns onto his other side. He pulls the blanket down just enough to let his eyes peek past it, and finds himself almost face to face with Nico in the bed next to theirs. He must have switched with Link.

Nico winks, then lies flat on his back and closes his eyes. Levi smiles to himself.

_And to think I didn’t want to come_ , his thoughts echo Taryn’s words.


	3. Day 3

“Good morning, sunshine.”

“Ugh, shut up,” Taryn pushes him away.

Levi laughs and gets up from the bed, lifting his arms up and over his head to stretch his back out. He’s the first one to get up, once again, but this time he’s hopeful for the day that awaits him.

His optimism translates into a quick shower, followed by breakfast prepared in the kitchen. It’s not enough for everybody, but at least someone will get to enjoy it, Levi thinks as he chops fruit and drops it on the stack of pancakes in front of him.

Granted, they come from a ready-to-go batter they were provided with, but it’s the thought that counts.

He doesn’t get interrupted for a while, but as soon as the smell of hot food starts wafting through the air, the sound of feet shuffling closer is quick to follow. The first person to pop their head through the door is a devastatingly fluffy-haired Nico.

“Oh,” he smiles, pleasantly surprised. “Good morning. That’s nice of you.”

Levi smirks. “What makes you think that this isn’t all for me?”

Nico looks him up and down slowly. “You wouldn’t be able to fit all that inside you.”

Ignoring the blush that immediately warms his cheeks, Levi squints at him menacingly.

“Are you calling me small?”

“I ain’t calling you big,” Nico shrugs, walking closer.

Levi gasps out of fake outrage. “That’s rude.”

Nico smiles and reaches for a piece of pancake, but Levi slaps his hand away, receiving a sad noise in return. Instead of saying anything, Levi tears off a piece himself and grabs a slice of banana to set on it, then holds it out between two fingers.

There are a few seconds in which Nico just looks at the food, and Levi just barely starts to think that maybe he’s misunderstood everything, he’s going too fast, he’s got it wrong, but then Nico leans forward and eats the pancake directly from Levi’s fingers, lips grazing his skin.

“Tastes good,” he comments.

Levi swallows noisily and nods, turning back to the task at hand.

“Did you sleep well?” Nico asks him, stealing another piece of banana.

“Surprisingly, yes.”

“Why surprisingly?”

“I’m not really used to sleeping in the same room as nine other people,” Levi laughs.

“True,” Nico chuckles as well. “I hope I didn’t bother you too much, then.”

He bites down on an orange slice and some of the juice dribbles down his chin. Levi follows the path of the droplet down Nico’s neck with his eyes, watching it get absorbed by the material of his shirt.

“You didn’t,” he shakes his head, then lifts his gaze again. “You don’t bother me at all.”

Nico smiles, maybe even blushes a little, and looks at the floor between them. “Good to know we’re on the same page.”

Levi bites the inside of his cheek and finally finishes arranging the fruit on his plate of pancakes. He picks it up and turns around, nodding his head towards the door.

“Want to go eat outside?” he asks Nico.

“Sure,” Nico nods, grabbing his own breakfast and following Levi outside.

It’s another gorgeous day, the sun shining and reflecting off the water, so they sit together on one of the outdoor couches and dig into their food. Levi raises his legs to tuck his feet under Nico’s thigh and Nico wraps his fingers around Levi’s ankle.

It feels so nice that Levi can’t help but allow himself to smile behind a bite of pancakes, sneaking a look at Nico’s profile under his lashes. He looks almost too good to be true, but apparently this is happening, and it’s happening now. Levi will have to deal with that.

“Alright?” Nico asks.

Levi shakes himself out of his unfocused stare and nods. “Just thinking.”

“What about?”

Nico’s fingers creep up Levi’s shin, nails lightly grazing the skin and sending a shiver up Levi’s back.

“About-” Levi swallows. “About how maybe I owe Taryn an apology.”

“Because she was right?” Nico reaches Levi’s knee and gently squeezes the sensitive part above it.

Levi jumps and grabs Nico’s wrist before he can either move higher or away, he’s not sure.

“Because she was right,” he confirms.

-

There is no set alarm for anybody, but the sun seems to awaken people naturally, because it’s not long before the door to the backyard opens and Link sprints down the pathway and jumps directly into the pool.

“Good morning, lovebirds!” he calls out from where he’s floating on his back.

Nico laughs, pats Levi’s legs and jumps up, diving into the pool as well to tackle Link and push him underwater. Levi watches them and shakes his head to himself, stretching out along the length of the couch to be more comfortable.

“Well, well, well.”

Levi tilts his head back, an upside-down Taryn standing right behind him.

“Already abandoning me for hot guys, are we?” Taryn lifts an eyebrow.

“It was a coincidence,” Levi shrugs.

Taryn rolls her eyes and shoves his legs off, sitting down in their place. Levi just puts them back down and closes his eyes, focusing on the sound of water in the background and people chatting through the open doors.

“Why is everyone already up?” he asks.

“We got a letter,” Taryn explains.

“Oh. Good news?”

“Depends on what you think ‘good’ is.”

Levi frowns. “That’s worrying.”

“I think you and lover boy over there are going to enjoy it,” Taryn nods her head towards Nico, who’s now walking around the pool with Link sitting on his shoulders.

He winks when he notices them looking at him, then flips Link off of his back. Levi laughs when Link grabs Nico’s ankles from underwater, sweeping him off his feet. They’re having fun, for sure.

“Enjoy what?” Levi asks, not looking away from the scene.

Taryn winks at him. “We’re gonna learn how to tie each other up, or something like that.”

Levi turns to face her, eyes wide. “What kind of tying up?”

“The fun one.”

-

The fun kind of tying people up turns out to be called Shibari, and it’s apparently a very serious matter. A girl comes in while they’re all spread around the garden, scaring the shit out of Dahlia and Jo who were sitting together by the door, a bag full of rope in her hands and a nice smile on her face.

Her name is Shan, and she looks as kind as she actually is pretty authoritative. She makes them all stand up and split into couples she picks and none of them dares complain. Levi guesses that they’re all either too distracted by her eyes, or they’re worried about what’s to come.

He can’t decide where he stands, but he doesn’t have to wonder for too long, because she points for Nico and him to stand in the same spot at one corner of the garden.

“It feels like she’s gonna make us fight each other, doesn’t it?” Nico bends down to whisper in Levi’s ear.

Levi laughs breathily, but immediately stops when Shan claps her hands once and looks over all of them with that same smile.

“Alright, so,” she starts. “You all haven’t known each other for that long, have you?”

A few noises of confirmation go around the group, everyone looking around and sharing a confused yet intrigued expression.

“Well, that is going to change today. You’re going to get to know the people you’re about to spend two weeks with, but not in the way you think.”

Her hand moves into the bag sitting on the table at her side, taking out a long piece of rope and running it through her fingers a couple of times. All eyes are trained on her, and she knows it.

“Long story short, you’re going to tie each other up. Fun!”

They all start murmuring excitedly as Shan passes over different kinds of ropes of various lengths. Levi grabs theirs and stares down at it, the material looking innocent but feeling like the dirtiest secret. Nico clears his throat by his side.

“Do you want me to…” he starts offering.

Levi shakes his head, not even listening to the end of his question. He looks over at Shan, who’s already watching him and nods with a smirk when he lifts an eyebrow in question.

“You cool with being tied up?” Levi asks.

Nico doesn’t even blink, just offers his crossed wrists out. Levi grins up at him, then pushes against his shoulder to make him turn around and grabs his arms to actually tie them behind his back.

“Damn,” Casey comments from somewhere behind them.

Levi doesn’t turn to face him, but he still smirks to himself as he watches Shan show them how to make the first knot. His heart is beating so fast that he can hear the pumping in his ears, and the higher he goes with the rope up Nico’s forearms, the tenser the muscles of his back get.

“Alright?” Levi asks when he sees Nico open and close his hands.

Nico looks at him over his shoulder and nods. Levi can’t help but notice the blush on his cheeks. How is this his life right now.

Shan walks around looking over their work and correcting stances and tightness. When she gets to them, she stands next to Levi and motions for him to press down on Nico’s shoulders to make him kneel.

Doing as told, Levi watches mesmerized as Nico goes down at his slightest touch, knees digging into the grass and head held high to stare out in front of him. He gasps and tries to cover it up with a fake cough, but she still smiles knowingly.

“As you can probably tell,” she continues walking amongst them. “Trust is very important in this dynamic. One person holds the power, and the other one lets them.”

Levi looks at the way Nico’s back shifts as he moves slightly in the restraints, and swallows noisily. He’s not sure he’s the one with the power at the moment.

To avoid something he would regret from happening, Levi looks up and around at the other couples. He has to hold in laughter as he watches Link try wrap rope around Jo’s torso without strangling or accidentally feeling her up.

Nico attracts his attention by bumping his shoulder against Levi’s leg.

“Do my ankles?” he blinks his eyes, the picture of innocence.

Levi wants to go dig himself under the sand to cool off a bit or maybe just disappear for a few hours, but instead he resists the urge and walks around Nico, standing in front of him and tilting his head to the side as he smiles down at him.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve done this, huh?” he wonders out loud.

Nico bites his lower lip and shakes his head. Levi hums.

“That’s a nice mental image,” he considers.

“Doesn’t have to me a mental one,” Nico winks.

They simply look each other in the eye for what feels like hours, until someone screeches and Shan is forced to tell them to release their momentary prisoners. Levi doesn’t think about it for too long or he’d spontaneously burst up in flames, but Nico looks disappointed.

A braver person would reach out to touch or say something, but Levi just crouches next to Nico and undoes the knots. Nico pulls his arms around and stretches them out, smiling like he’s having the time of his life.

Levi eyes the marks that the ropes left on the skin of Nico’s forearms, and without realizing it runs one finger over the bumps. Nico flexes his hands and the tendons in his arm move under Levi’s touch, and for one second he forgets where they are.

Then somebody slaps him up the back of his neck, and he’s brought back to reality.

“What the fuck?” Levi quickly turns around, cradling his head.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say we would all watch it, but it’s lunchtime,” Jackson shrugs.

Burying himself under the sand once again feels like a very appealing option. Levi doesn’t get to actually do it, though, because Nico pats him on the back and stands up, offering a hand to help him as well.

Levi looks up at him and just stares for a couple of seconds, then grabs Nico’s hand and lets him pull him up. They end up standing toe to toe, faces so close Levi has to go cross-eyed to keep looking at him.

“That was fun,” Nico smiles.

“Anytime,” Levi chuckles.

“If you don’t hurry up there’ll be nothing left!”

The moment is ruined, and Levi’s stomach grumbles to reinforce the point.

Levi clears his throat. “I guess we have to go eat.”

“Of course,” Nico nods.

They don’t move from where they’re standing. A smile slowly makes their way on both of their faces, to the point where they laugh and finally take a step back from each other.

The feeling making Levi’s stomach flutter is an unfamiliar yet welcome one. Levi still finds it hard to believe, but he’s going to keep enjoying the moment for as long as it lasts.

-

The afternoon brings another round of sunbathing and lazily floating in the pool. In their defence, there isn’t that much to do here anyway. The peak of every day so far has been choosing what swimsuit to wear, and the ritual of rubbing sunscreen all over each other.

Not that Levi is complaining. He has his own lounging chair that he keeps protected from anybody who might want to steal it, and he’s happy just lying on it, half in the sun and half in the shade for as long as he feels like it.

From his spot he can spy on both Taryn shamelessly flirting with Carina on the other side of the pool and Nico practicing some sort of martial arts in the grass.

There’s an itch he needs to scratch, though.

It had been fun, that first date on the beach, and Levi is craving for more. This morning had consolidated that there’s enough chemistry between them to blow up the whole lab, but he also wants to know if the feeling of wanting to speak with Nico for hours is legit or just him projecting.

That’s why he spends at least twenty minutes making a list or things he would like to talk about and see how Nico reacts to them. Only then does he realize how crazy he sounds and rethinks his plan.

He’s nervous. There’s still something that forces him to believe that it can’t be true, Nico actually being interested in him and only him, and he’s trying to fight it as hard as he can, but it’s not easy.

So he’s going to do what he does best, which is talk too much. That will either make Nico run away in fear or seal the deal. Yes, it makes perfect sense and it’s totally going to work.

Sure in his plan, Levi gets up from his chair and walks around the pool, stepping onto the grass barefoot and reaching the corner Nico is now in, rubbing a towel over the back of his neck and watching Levi approach with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Hiya,” Levi smiles when he’s close enough.

“Hey. Want to join me?”

Levi pulls a garden chair – seriously, there are so many chairs in this place – and sits down on it, bringing his legs up to cross them.

“I’m happy to just look, I think,” he shrugs.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Nico winks.

“Shut up.”

Nico laughs and bends down to pick up his discarded shirt, but doesn’t put it on. Instead he sits down on the grass and leans back on his hands, legs stretched out on each side of Levi’s chair.

“You already look tan,” Nico comments.

Levi looks down at his arms and shrugs. “The sun likes me.”

“It’s not the only one.”

He keeps being so straightforward. Levi takes a few seconds to just watch him, and Nico lets him.

“It looked cool, what you were doing earlier,” Levi hums.

“Thanks. Do you play any sports?”

“I like the occasional swim, I guess. Not much more than that.”

Nico nods. “I’m sure you would look good doing pretty much anything.”

Levi has half the thought of pointing out that his purpose isn’t to look good while exercising, but he chooses to ignore it.

“Do you have any other hobbies?” he asks instead.

“Eh. I’m pretty busy with work, so I don’t really have the time.”

“Got it,” Levi nods, then waits for Nico to elaborate or something, but he never does. “I like… puzzles.”

Nico raises both eyebrows. “Puzzles?”

“Yeah, with like, lots of pieces,” Levi chuckles. “It relaxes me.”

“What do you do with them after you’re done?”

“I, uh, put them back.”

“You don’t hang them?”

Levi shakes his head. “If I like them enough, sometimes, yeah.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah.”

The conversation dies again. Levi waits longer this time, but Nico is happy just sitting there looking up at him and bumping his shins against the legs of Levi’s chair.

“You look really pretty in pool attire,” is what Nico actually says.

It’s not that Levi doesn’t appreciate the compliments, but they do get a bit redundant after a while.

“I like to think my natural habitat is exactly this,” Levi shrugs. “I might hide away and never leave even when this is done.”

“Well, I’m gonna have to stay as well, then,” Nico smiles.

“Wouldn’t want to keep you from your patients.”

“They would understand if they could see you.”

He keeps shooting Levi these blinding smiles and charming one-liners than only make Levi more frustrated, and not in the fun way. He bends forward with his elbows on his knees and chin propped on his hands, squinting down at Nico.

“You look like you don’t have a care in the world,” Levi comments.

Nico shrugs. “Right now, I don’t.”

“Am I the only one who brought all my cares in with me, then?”

They both quickly look at the other people, some just lounging around by their own, some chatting to each other in various degrees of flirting. They all look like they’re enjoying themselves.

“You’re still in time to go leave them outside,” Nico reminds him.

Levi is not sure what he’s actually suggesting, but he decides to give it one more change before he makes up his mind.

“Do you actually think we’re going to enjoy this time here?” he murmurs.

Nico leans forward, reaching up to cover the outside of Levi’s knees with his hands. His thumbs rub against the hair there and his eyes keep flickering between Levi’s eyes and his lips.

“If we play our cards right, I’m sure we can figure something out,” he says, voice low.

Levi deflates. He’s not going to get much out of this conversation, he needs to accept that. He wanted to talk about something real, but Nico only seems interested in flirting.

It would be fine, even more than fine, if they could actually go anywhere with that. They can’t, though, but apparently they can’t even have a normal conversation, and that leaves Levi wondering if they should even try at all.

Nico looks like he doesn’t mind it, though, so Levi resorts to patting the side of his face and turning his own head up toward the sun.

“We’re gonna go places, you and I,” Nico sighs before laying down in the grass.

Levi bites the inside of his cheek and crosses his arms around himself.

-

By the time they’re all sitting by the lit bonfire, Levi still hasn’t managed to fully shake off the feeling of lost potential.

They’re roasting s’mores – or actually, Isaac is doing his best to roast his s’mores while everyone else just eats pieces of chocolate and marshmallows. Levi is sitting next to him, so he gets a first row show to the way Casey, on his other side, keeps sweetly blinking his way into stealing Isaac’s food.

It’s cute. They’re cute. Levi sighs.

“Are you alright over there, grumpy?”

Levi moves his eyes from where they’re focused on the fire over to Casey, who’s leaning back against the couch, his head tilted towards him.

“Yeah, sure,” Levi nods.

“Want more chocolate?” Isaac offers.

“You know what? Yes.”

Isaac smiles knowingly and passes over a dripping s’more. Casey watches them with a proud smile, but he still doesn’t look convinced.

“Why aren’t you sitting with the hot man who keeps making eyes at you?” he wonders out loud.

Levi doesn’t have to look up to know what he’s talking about; he’s been trying not to reciprocate the staring for the past two hours. He doesn’t feel great about it, but he wouldn’t know what to do anyway.

“Because he keeps making eyes at me,” he answers unhelpfully.

Confused silence ensues. Levi stuffs the last of the melting chocolate in his mouth, mostly to avoid having to explain himself. Casey just waits patiently for him to finish, though.

“Well?”

“What?” Levi shrugs.

Casey lifts one unimpressed eyebrow, then gently covers Isaac’s wrist with his hand. “Babe, poison the next one you make for him.”

“Babe?” Levi wonders out loud.

“I’ll talk if you talk.”

They stare each other down long enough for Isaac to have another s’more ready for each of them. They take them and Isaac leans back, putting his arms around both of their shoulders.

“Let’s just enjoy the night, boys,” he pulls them closer.

Levi watches as Casey cuddles up against his side with a satisfied smile on his face. It looks like he’s missed something while he was busy sulking. Worn out by a day of overthinking, he finally sighs and lets his head fall back against Isaac’s forearm.

“I thought you two were, like… interested in each other,” Casey mumbles.

He doesn’t sound like he’s teasing anymore, so Levi forces himself to let his defences down and tell somebody else about this before it makes him go crazy.

“I thought so too,” he sighs. “But he only… compliments me.”

Casey reaches over to flick his shoulder. “Dude, how is that a problem at all?”

“He _only_ compliments me,” Levi repeats. “I want to have a full conversation without hearing how pretty I am.”

That makes both Isaac and Casey chuckle. Levi might start crying out of frustration.

“Okay, okay,” Isaac steps in. “I get it.”

“You do?” Levi looks at him.

“Yeah, I mean, you want to be able to talk to someone about something that isn’t just pickup lines.”

“Exactly. But maybe I’m expecting too much from him. I don’t even know him,” Levi sighs.

They all think it over for a bit. Levi leans forward to grab another cracker to munch on, then cuddles back into his spot. He dares quickly glancing to the side and immediately meets Nico’s gaze once again. His stomach twists uncomfortably.

“I think that maybe it’s too soon to decide,” Casey eventually decides.

“That’s what I think too,” Levi agrees. “But it’s been three days and he obviously wants to hang out with me. I don’t know how much longer I can stand being stared at and complimented though.”

“I normally would slap you for having such a non-problem,” Casey rolls his eyes. “But you’re right. Maybe you’re just not that compatible.”

To Levi it sounds like maybe they’re too compatible, just in the wrong way. Or, not in the wrong way, just not the way Levi would like right now. Or the way they’re allowed to be in here.

“Yeah, maybe,” Levi says under his breath.

He doesn’t get an answer to his question or peace of mind for the thoughts still running around his head. He does feel a bit dumb, being so dramatic about something so useless, but it’s all he can think about.

Because if Levi lets Nico down or at least drives him away because he doesn’t want him to keep complimenting him, for one everybody will surely find out and think he’s an idiot, and then he won’t have anyone to be with in here.

He’s perfectly aware of how over complicated and exaggerated he sounds, even just in his own head, but he can’t help it. He’s in equal parts anxious and disappointed.

Nico waves at him with a hopeful expression and Levi feels even worse for the way he turns away without replying.

Maybe he’d been right after all, about how he wouldn’t enjoy being here at all.

Isaac doesn’t say anything, just wordlessly passes Levi another piece of chocolate. Levi accepts it and smiles, then presses for information about what exactly is happening between them.

They gently tell him and Levi listens, ignoring the way he can feel a pair of eyes burning on the side of his face.

It was fun while it lasted, he guesses.


	4. Day 4

For the fourth day in a row, Levi is the first one to wake up. The sound of soft breathing all around him is the first thing he registers, followed by the feeling of the sun shining on his legs and warming them up.

Levi groans as he stretches his arms up and his back out, then sits up and tilts his head side to side.

There is still a weird feeling sitting on top of his stomach, uncomfortable like guilt and heavy like sadness. Maybe it has to do with how unreal it feels to be stuck in this place, but he’s never reacted to something like this. He feels like he’s exaggerating, but he can’t ignore it.

Maybe today is going to be a better day. Or maybe not. All he knows at the moment is that there’s a lounging chair waiting for him outside.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, Levi gets up and does his now usual routine of bathroom, breakfast, sunbathing.

As usual, he doesn’t get interrupted for a while. It seems like the less he feels like sleeping, the more everyone else does. Levi definitely isn’t complaining; when will he get the chance to just hang out in the sun for hours again?

And of course, as usual, at some point Levi hears the sound of feet padding closer.

“We have to stop meeting this way.”

Levi smiles to himself, looking down at his hands and nervously pulling on the skin between his fingers. Nico puts a hand on the back of his chair and walks around it, sitting down at the foot, arms propped behind him and legs outstretched.

He’s wearing a bright yellow swimsuit that clings high on his thighs and nothing else. Levi pointedly stares at his face with the most convincing smile he can muster up.

“It’s not really meeting when it’s just you coming to find me,” Levi smirks.

“It’s not hard finding you when you’re always in the same spot,” Nico shrugs.

Levi squints at him, then shrugs as well and leans back on the chair. Silence falls between them, only broken by the faint sound of the waves and the occasional bird chirping. It could almost be relaxing, if Levi didn’t know that there’s something hanging over the both of them.

He starts wondering if Nico is even aware of it, but he doesn’t have to think about it for long.

“I thought we could have a chat last night,” Nico starts.

Levi sighs. There it is.

“I needed a second by myself,” he tries.

Nico nods, looking down at the ground. After a couple of seconds he looks up, a worried expression on his face.

“Did I say something wrong?” he asks, voice quiet.

“Why do you think that?” Levi frowns.

“Because one second it feels like we get along well, and the next you look like you can’t stand me.”

That sends an uncomfortable feeling through Levi’s stomach. He bites the inside of his cheek and looks off to the side, trying to make sense of the words swirling around in his head.

“It’s not that,” is what he comes up with.

“But it is something,” Nico steps in.

Levi deflates. This is not going the way he wants to, so he changes strategy.

“Okay, I’m going to say something and you’re going to think I’m an idiot, but hear me out,” he sits back up, legs crossed and hands tucked under them.

Nico nods, turning his torso to face him without moving his legs. Levi takes a breath, then another one, then finally looks up at him.

“I was kind of turned off by the way you just kept flirting and not, like, let us have a real conversation.”

He braces himself for any kind of reaction, but none comes. Nico just tilts his head to the side and scrunches up his nose.

“I flirt too much?” he asks.

“Not too much, just…” Levi trails off, then gives in. “Yeah. A bit.”

“I’m sorry,” Nico rubs the back of his neck. “I thought you were into it.”

Levi reaches out to cover Nico’s hand reassuringly, but stops himself at the last second. If Nico notices, he doesn’t mention it.

“I was,” Levi confirms. “But I guess I got tired of hearing about how pretty I looked.”

Nico laughs, a proper laugh that makes some tension melt off the both of them.

“Alright, I’ll take that,” Nico admits. “I’m aware of how over the top it was. Truth be told, I was nervous.”

Levi laughs in disbelief. “What? Why?”

“Because you’re exactly what I would define as my type, and I wanted to make that clear.”

There’s definitely a blush on his cheeks, but Levi refuses to acknowledge it. Instead, he shifts and crosses his arms over his chest, looking at Nico from under his lashes.

“And what would your type be?” he asks.

Nico looks him over just once, slow and deliberate. “Cute. Smart. Just nerdy enough.”

Levi pretends to be offended. “Wow. I’m so lucky I have the right amount of nerd in me.”

“Sarcastic, doesn’t take anyone’s shit, challenges me,” Nico continues.

That feels better. Levi smiles and pretends to check his nails. “I’m glad you can appreciate that.”

Nico hums, but doesn’t add anything else. Levi sees his hand crawling closer to his knee out of the corner of his eye. He doesn’t move away.

“Basically I think you’re super cool and interesting and didn’t know how to make you think the same,” he explains.

“You didn’t need to shower me in compliments to make me think that,” Levi shrugs.

“I don’t?”

He sounds genuinely surprised, and Levi can’t stand it. He finally untangles all his limbs and scoots closer to Nico, one leg hanging off either side of the chair and head tilted back just enough to look at Nico with heavy eyes.

“I mean, I’m not saying you should stop complimenting me forever, but I want to talk about other stuff as well every now and then.”

“I can do that,” Nico smiles.

“You sure?”

Nico playfully slaps the outside of Levi’s shoulder. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Okay. What’s your favourite movie?” Levi shoots.

“The Great Gatsby.”

“The Robert Redford one or the Leo DiCaprio one?”

“Not saying.”

“Why?”

“A man has got to have his secrets.”

Levi squints. Nico smiles serenely.

“It’s the Leo one. The colours, the music…” Levi tries.

Nico just shrugs and motions zipping his mouth shut. Levi rolls his eyes.

“Whatever,” he sighs, quickly standing up. “I guess I’ll go ask Link about his…”

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence, because Nico grabs him around the waist and brings him back down onto the chair. Levi doesn’t squeak, no matter what anyone might say.

“It’s the Leo one, you’re right,” Nico admits.

Levi hums in satisfaction. “That’s what I love to hear.”

It’s Nico’s turn to roll his eyes. He doesn’t let go of Levi, arms still loosely wrapped around him. Levi doesn’t feel like moving away either, so they just stay sitting like that.

“We’re good, then?” Nico asks after a while.

Levi leans back to properly look him in the face, and nods. “Yeah, we’re good.”

“Can I still tell you you’re pretty?” Nico smiles.

“If you alternate it with telling me about you.”

Nico looks like he’s won the lottery. “Deal.”

Levi laughs to himself and pats the side of Nico’s face. “Deal.”

-

As is now apparently tradition, the rest of the population of the resort slowly appears as the hours go by. Levi and Nico don’t spend the whole time shooting question back and forth, but they do enjoy each other’s presence in more ways than just endless flirting.

They get up to stretch their legs and take a walk around the garden, then Levi sits with his feet in the water as Nico swims around a bit. The chairs around them start filling up with puffy faces and bleary eyes, most people greeting them with a smile and a nod.

All in all, being here so far hasn’t been the worst thing ever, Levi will admit to that. It’s quiet, clean, comfortable, and the people around him aren’t the worst either.

Taryn catches Levi’s eye as she walks out arm in arm with Carina, and they share a knowing smile. Then Nico splashes him and Levi is forced to dive in and splash him back until he calls for mercy. It’s only fair.

Lunch passes and they all shuffle back outside to nurse their full bellies in the shade, except for Nico, Link and Jackson. They’re apparently immune to post meal tiredness, because they don’t think twice about if before challenging each other to some sort of workout ritual.

Everyone stares in either awe or confusion as the three of them claim a stretch of grass for themselves and immediately settle into planks. They start sweating almost immediately, lower backs glistening in the sun and hair getting plastered to their foreheads.

Far be it from Levi to objectify for his own enjoyment, but they look good. He’s sure every person who’s staring along with him agrees.

“Yes, I can!”

Levi gets startled out of his mindless staring when he hears Nico raising his voice. He looks up and finds Nico waving and motioning for him to come over.

“Can you come here for a second?” he asks from afar. “Casey, you too.”

“Uh, sure,” Levi nods.

Casey joins him down the pathway and they walk together over to where the guys look like they’re planning something.

“What’s up?” Casey asks when they come close enough.

Jackson steps forward with a look that says he doesn’t agree with all of this.

“They want to use you as human weights,” he says all at once.

Levi blinks just once. Casey full on laughs.

“That makes us sound crazy,” Link shoves Jackson away, trying to make up for what he said. “But… yeah. Would you let us?”

There are a couple of seconds in which nobody speaks. Levi looks at them, dripping sweat like they just took a shower, and mentally shrugs. Why the fuck not.

He nods and Nico smiles like he’s won something. He probably has, depending on how one looks at it.

“Alright, so, you should sit on our shoulders as we do squats.”

Levi looks over at Casey again, who’s already watching him with a spark in his eyes.

“Get on your knees, then,” Levi nods at Nico.

For the second time in just a few days, Nico drops down in front of Levi with a grace that suggests he’s practiced this exact movement well enough. Levi only allows himself to think about it for a few seconds, then walks around Nico and hooks one leg over his shoulder.

Nico holds tightly onto Levi’s shins and waits for him to be settled on his back, then slowly stands up. Levi feels his stomach drop at being this high up, his hands reaching out on their own but only finding Nico’s hair to grab.

He tugs on a few strands without meaning to, but Nico doesn’t complain. Interesting.

“You ready?” Nico asks Link.

Levi turns to watch them as well, and can’t keep himself from mirroring Casey’s shit-eating grin. They’re sitting on the shoulders of two of the hottest guys in here with an audience; they definitely could be doing worse.

“Yes, let’s go,” Link answers, getting into position.

They stand side by side and bend their knees, then take a deep breath and start lowering themselves.

Levi feels how shaky Nico’s movements are, and his instinctive reaction is to tighten his thighs and his hands. Nico makes a wheezing sound, and Levi lets go as soon as he realizes what he’s doing, but Nico just squeezes his calves.

Still not the moment to dwell too long on that. Not the moment for another ten days, Levi reminds himself. He’s not sure if that makes it better or worse.

“C’mon, is that all you can do?” Jo shouts from where she’s lying.

Nico and Link laugh, but it sounds strained. They’re still going, though, which is definitely impressive.

Levi stops feeling like he’s going to crash to the ground at any second, so he slowly moves his hands and puts them on his own knees. Then, not satisfied, keeps going and reaches just below them, quickly but efficiently twisting one of Nico’s nipples.

Screaming both in surprise and slight pain, Nico stumbles forward but doesn’t fall. Laughter erupts from the sidelines, even Link chuckling through his own pain.

“You think this is funny?” Nico huffs.

“It’s not like anybody forced you to do this,” Levi shrugs, patting whatever part of his face he can reach.

“It’s not like anybody forced you to agree,” Nico mocks him.

Levi doesn’t have anything to defend himself, so he just goes back to tugging on Nico’s hair.

They go through another few sets of squats before they start suffering too much to go on. Still, Levi gets bored of being used as a human weight after a while, so his fingers start creeping down Nico’s front again.

“Don’t you dare,” Nico says through his teeth.

“You can’t stop me,” Levi singsongs.

He quickly tries to twist Nico’s nipple again, but Nico is quicker, grabbing his wrist and stopping him.

“You’re no fun,” Levi pouts.

“You wanna see fun?” Nico growls.

Before Levi can answer, Nico uses his grip on Levi’s wrist to pull him forward, his other hand coming up to wrap around his back and stop him from falling. He somehow ends up in Nico’s arms, head still spinning and wide eyes staring up at Nico’s amused ones.

“That was smooth,” is all he manages to comment.

Nico grins. “That was annoying.”

“You wanted me to participate in this improvised show of muscles.”

“Don’t pretend you weren’t enjoying every second of it.”

Levi opens his mouth to answer, but once again Nico interrupts him by starting to run towards the pool, still holding Levi tight to his chest. Levi only gets to watch as the water comes closer and closer.

They crash into it together, Link and Casey following soon after. Levi sinks to the bottom of the pool then pushes himself up, coming out with a gasp, pushing the hair off of his forehead. Nico is there waiting for him, all features pulled into the happiest of smiles.

“Asshole,” Levi coughs.

Nico laughs and comes closer, pulling Levi in with an arm around his shoulders.

“Sorry,” he mumbles against the side of his head.

“You’re so not,” Levi grumbles.

Looking like he knows exactly what he’s doing, Nico pulls back just enough to properly look at Levi, water falling from his hair into his eyes.

“You look really pretty all wet,” he says.

Levi rolls his eyes and shoves him away, then thinks better of it and jumps on his back, doing his best to push him underwater as punishment.

He catches Taryn’s eye from afar. She shakes her head, but she’s smiling. Levi pinches the end of his nose as Nico grabs him and throws him halfway across the pool, laughing until he gets submerged.

-

Levi is tired, so tired. Everyone around him is talking excitedly about something, but he can’t be bothered to listen to them. All that matters to him right now is the way Nico’s fingers are running through Levi’s hair as he lies with his head on Nico’s thighs.

It sends shivers down his spine every time Nico gets to the back of his head and lightly scratches with his nails, then combs through the hair and goes back to the front. Levi is the closest he’ll ever be to heaven, he’s convinced.

“Why can’t we just go to bed again?” Taryn asks.

“We’re supposed to be waiting for something,” Jackson reminds her.

She groans and flops back against the chair, but then Carina giggles and Taryn immediately forgets about any complaining she was going to do in order to focus her attention back on her. Levi looks at her from afar and smiles to himself.

“Are you comfortable?” Nico’s voice suddenly asks from right next to Levi’s ear.

“Yeah,” Levi nods. “You’re good at that.”

Nico chuckles. “Happy to be helpful.”

Levi reaches up and pats Nico’s arm as a sign of appreciation, then goes back to losing his battle against sleep.

He thinks he’s properly gotten into the spirit of this place by now: he’s got someone interested in him and he spends his days just lounging in the sun, alternating between eating fruit and drinking cold beverages. He literally couldn’t ask for more.

He could do with being able to at least relieve himself from the tension aforementioned man causes, but so far he’s been able to handle that fairly well.

Nico scratches just behind Levi’s ear and Levi has to bite his tongue to keep from making any kind of noise. Nico laughs because he knows exactly what he’s doing. Levi starts planning his revenge.

Before he can act out on anything, though, they hear the doorbell ring, followed by the sound of the front door opening and then closing.

They all look at each other first and then towards the entrance, all mildly alarmed.

“Did someone just come in or are we all having a collective hallucination?” Isaac wonders out loud.

Nobody gets to answer, since a guy that’s all smiles and winks walks out onto the backyard.

“Hello, you beautiful people!” he greets all of them. “How are we doing?”

He walks around the bonfire area and goes to stand in front of them, stance wide and the most satisfied smile on his face.

“I’m Vik, and I’m moving in tonight,” he winks.

Everyone just stares back at him. When his smile starts to falter the tiniest bit, some people seem to remember how to interact and go to properly say hi to him. Levi only goes because Nico starts prodding his belly until he gives up.

“Hi, so nice to meet you,” Vik grins when Levi steps up to him.

“Welcome,” Levi smiles politely.

Once all hands have been shook and names exchanged, they all sit back down, leaving an empty seat for Vik. He falls down in it and lies back, putting his arms over the backrest and one ankle over the other knee. He already looks like he belongs here.

“I see we have no shortage of hot people in here,” he comments, looking around with a glint in his eye.

Levi just has to do it to him. “You know the rules, right?”

“What rules?” Vik asks, confused.

“While we’re here we can’t engage in any sexual activity, both in company and solitary. No kissing or heavy petting either,” Levi explains.

Vik laughs. Nobody else laughs. His face falls.

“You’re not joking?” he asks.

“We’re not joking,” Levi confirms.

The confidence he’d walked in with isn’t gone, but it’s definitely momentarily overshadowed by confusion and pure dread. It can’t be easy to come in here with such strong expectations and then be presented with this. Levi feels for him.

“Well, it’s not like anyone can stop us,” Vik smirks.

There goes Levi’s empathy for him.

“We’re getting a prize at the end if we behave,” Jo explains.

Vik shrugs. “Whatever. I don’t care about prizes, I just want to have fun.”

He immediately gets on everybody’s nerves, and he’s been here for less than twenty minutes. Levi goes to answer him, but he feels Nico’s fingers press on the small of his back, and they’re enough to make him think better of it.

“Does anyone want to show me around?” Vik claps his hands together.

Jackson stands up and throws an arm around Vik’s shoulders, leading him away and visibly trying to make him understand how it works around here. Levi watches them go with a smile on his face, then Nico’s fingers prod him in the side and he’s forced to turn around.

“Hey! Stop that,” Levi laughs, grabbing Nico’s hand and keeping it away from himself.

“You weren’t paying attention to me,” Nico pouts.

Levi rolls his eyes and sits back against the couch, his shoulder tightly pressed against Nico’s.

“As if you need more of it,” Levi sighs.

Nico pinches the top of Levi’s thigh. “Do I have competition, then?”

Something tightens in Levi’s chest. He tilts his head back and to the side to look Nico in the eye. They’re close, closer than they should probably be, but neither of them move away. Levi smiles kindly.

“No, I don’t think so,” he reassures him.

“Not your type?” Nico asks, but he already looks pleased.

“I don’t have a type,” Levi shakes his head. “It’s hard enough for me to like someone without all of that.”

Nico hums. “Do you like me?”

He’s just going for it, probably feeling safer when they’re this close, surrounded by warmth and quiet, since the others have started leaving as well. Levi lets his eyes fall down to Nico’s lips for just a split second, but enough for him to notice.

“I think I do,” he finally answers.

“You think?”

Levi shrugs. “Yeah. So far so good.”

Nico bites his bottom lip and grins. “Alright. Let’s keep going in that direction, then.”

“Don’t let me stop you,” Levi raises both hands.

They just look at each other for a few seconds without saying anything else. They both have heavy eyelids and dopey smiles on their faces, and to the outside eye they probably look ridiculous. Or maybe not, since everyone else is in basically the same situation.

“Should we go to bed?” Nico suggests.

Levi pretends to be outraged. “How dare you!”

“I meant in separate beds,” Nico defends himself.

“Sure you did,” Levi shakes his head, standing up dramatically. “Going after my innocence like that.”

He starts walking away, but Nico grabs his hand and pulls him back, making Levi stumble into him.

“I would never,” Nico whispers.

Levi looks up at him and raises an unimpressed eyebrow. Nico just keeps smiling serenely, one hand coming up to brush his knuckles against Levi’s cheek.

“Can I be really honest for just a second?” Nico asks.

“Always,” Levi nods.

Nico thinks about it for just a second, then traces the edge of Levi’s ear.

“You make me want to break the rules,” Nico says slowly and clearly.

Levi swallows. He looks down at the dip of Nico’s throat and nods, lifting a hand and gently laying it on Nico’s chest. He can feel Nico’s heart underneath his fingers, beating fast.

“You too,” Levi answers quickly.

Nico grins and moves his hand down to Levi’s shoulder, then to the centre of his back. Levi only lets him go that far before he steps out of his arms and towards the door that leads inside.

“Where are you going?” Nico calls out.

“To bed,” Levi shrugs.

He doesn’t wait around for Nico to answer, just sneaks inside and hides into the bathroom, quickly getting himself ready for bed. Jo and Dahlia are in there washing up as well, but they’ve all mastered the art of ignoring each other’s antics in the bathroom at this point.

Before he goes he stops in front of the mirror and just looks at himself. There’s a tan already where there wasn’t one before, but there’s also a glint in his eye that means he’s enjoying himself. All in all, he looks good.

Levi shuffles over to the bedroom and goes straight for his bed. He expects Taryn to be there, but he just finds an empty clump of sheets in her place. Confused, he looks around for her, and surprisingly finds her looking back from Carina’s bed.

He raises both eyebrows and tilts his head to the side in a silent question, but she just smiles smugly and blows him a kiss. Levi rolls his eyes but sends the kiss back, then slides under the covers and makes himself comfortable.

The tiredness immediately settles heavy on him, and he’s about to fall asleep even with all the lights still turned on and people walking in and out of the room, but there’s something that disturbs him so much he has to crack one eye open.

Nico is lying in the bed next to Levi’s, wide-eyed and staring right back at him.

“That’s creepy,” Levi comments.

“I’m not creepy,” Nico frowns.

“No, but what you’re doing is,” Levi shrugs. “Go to sleep.”

“I can’t.”

Levi knows he’s walking straight into a trap, but he still goes without a second thought. “Why?”

“Link is mad at me because I’m keeping him from sleeping with Jo tonight,” Nico explains.

“Link and Jo are a thing?” Levi asks.

“Yeah. There’s a lot you haven’t noticed, I fear.”

Levi sticks his tongue out at him. “Shut up. Let them sleep together, then.”

“And where am I supposed to sleep?”

“Somewhere else?”

He knows it’s coming. Nico knows it’s coming. Even Link, who’s obviously listening in from the other side of the bed knows it’s coming.

“Would your bed be available?” Nico asks.

Levi bites the inside of his cheek as he stares at Nico and Nico stares back. There are about a million reasons why he shouldn’t agree to this, and about a million and one why he absolutely should. It all comes down to him at this point.

As a result of a decision he takes in a split second, Levi shuffles back towards the wall and pulls down the covers on the side of the bed that’s now empty. Nico smiles like he’s just gotten the best news of his life and immediately jumps out of his bed and into Levi’s.

As soon as they both settle down, Nico brings the covers up and over their shoulders. Levi cuddles into his pillow and Nico copies him, then they’re left watching each other once again, only this time with way less distance between them.

“No actual rule breaking, yeah?” Levi wants to make sure.

“Of course,” Nico nods. “Just sleep. Good old sleep.”

“Yep. Close your eyes and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“What about you?”

“You first.”

“Why?”

Levi groans. “Just do it.”

Nico gives in with a quiet laugh, and finally closes his eyes. Levi waits a couple of seconds in which he just observes him, then props himself up on one elbow and quickly leans in, dropping a chaste kiss on Nico’s cheek.

There’s a small smile on Nico’s face when Levi goes back to his spot. He doesn’t open his eyes again, and Levi doesn’t wait for him to do it. He just closes his own eyes and lets sleep take over him.


	5. Day 5

Levi is expecting to be the first one up once again when he wakes up. He pats the other side of the bed, but Taryn isn’t where she’s supposed to be. Then it comes to him that it’s Nico who’s actually supposed to be there, but he is not either.

No one is there, in fact, because Levi is alone both in the bed and in the entire room. Apparently he’d managed to be the last one to wake up this morning.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Levi stands up, stretches his back and goes about his routine. There’s nobody to slow him down, so he gets to pass by the kitchen and grab something to eat and then step out onto the garden.

As always, people are lounging by the pool, swimming in it, or just generally wasting their time half in the sun and half in the shade. Or maybe it’s not wasting time, since they’re mostly all chatting and standing closer to each other than they should.

Remembering what Nico said the previous night about not noticing what has been going on around here, Levi leans back against the wall behind him and takes in the scene in front of him.

They’ve only been here for five days, or maybe it’s already been five days, depends on how one looks at it. Apparently they’ve all been focusing on getting something out of this experience, because it looks like they’re mostly all coupled up.

Taryn and Carina are sharing a lounging chair, laughing about something Levi is too far to hear. They’re cute, like really cute. Equally as cute are Casey and Isaac, sitting next to each other with their legs dangling in the pool and Isaac looking at Casey like he’ll die if he doesn’t hear every single word he says.

Jackson and Dahlia are cuddled up in the grass, probably taking a nap; Link and Jo are doing jumping jacks in the sand, even though they’re mostly just kicking it towards each other and laughing about it. They all look like they’ve known each other forever, and it’s really cute.

Who Levi doesn’t see anywhere is Nico. He pushes himself off the wall and looks around for him, but he’s not sitting anywhere near, so Levi starts slowly walking down the path.

He says hi to everyone he comes across, but doesn’t stop to talk to them. Taryn waves at him like a queen and he briefly bows to her, making Carina laugh at their antics.

“He’s just behind the corner,” she suggests.

Levi thanks her with a blinding smile and quickly jogs over to the area that’s hidden by the building, finding Nico lying in the grass with his arms thrown over his face.

He debates announcing himself, but instead chooses to walk closer to Nico’s body, stepping between him and the sun and casting a shadow over him.

“I told you I’m not doing that,” Nico mumbles.

Levi laughs, and Nico immediately brings his arms down, looking up at him with surprise written all over his face.

“Oh, hi, I didn’t know it was you.”

“Who did you think it was?” Levi asks, sitting down next to him.

“Vik has been trying to get me on his plan to break all the rules of this place,” Nico sighs.

Levi crosses his legs and props his face on his palm, elbows digging into his knees. There’s a pleasant breeze ruffling their hair, and no noises other than the distant crash of waves against the shore.

“All of them?” Levi wonders out loud.

“Yeah. I don’t know where he wants to start, though.”

“We’ll either find out soon or he’ll get thrown into the ocean before he can try,” Levi shrugs.

Nico laughs, then they go back to silence for a bit, Levi picking at the grass while Nico stretches his arms over his head.

“Sleep well?” Nico asks.

“Yeah. You?”

“Of course,” Nico nods. “Your bed is much more comfortable than mine.”

Levi laughs and sprinkles some grass over Nico’s chest. “I’m pretty sure they are exactly the same.”

“Well, maybe it was the company that made the difference,” Nico smiles.

“I’m telling Link you said that,” Levi threatens.

“He’ll just kick me out for good, and then I’ll have to permanently move into your bed.”

Levi puts grass in Nico’s hair, then brushes it off by running his fingers through it. He’s being way more physical than he normally would, but Nico makes him feel like doing it. And besides, he doesn’t look like he minds it.

“It’s a big bed, we both comfortably fit in it,” Levi reasons.

“We do,” Nico smiles. “But I think we’d be even more comfortable if we stood closer.”

The expression on his face says he’s perfectly aware of how much he’s pushing it, but Levi lets him. In fact, he keeps wrapping Nico’s hair around his fingers and slightly tugging on it, purposefully making him wait for an answer.

“We’re standing close,” Levi points out.

“Yeah,” Nico licks his lips. “Could be closer.”

Levi slowly leans down, until their faces are so close that they can’t really see each other properly. Nico looks up at him with wide eyes and parted lips, and it’s all so tempting that Levi forgets about rules and prizes and everything to do with it.

He only stops when the tips of their noses touch. At that point he realizes what he’s doing, and he freezes.

“Yeah,” Nico says again, even though there has been no question.

“No,” Levi shakes his head slightly.

“I know, but…” Nico whispers, lifting one hand to brush against the side of Levi’s face.

Levi smiles and rubs their noses together gently. Nico makes a tortured noise as Levi finally leans back, but he’s still smiling.

“Let’s talk about your grandma,” Levi decides, sitting back up and patting Nico’s stomach.

“Oh my god, you dick,” Nico laughs. “That’s so mean.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Levi shrugs innocently. “I’m just curious.”

Nico hums like he doesn’t believe him, bringing his hands up behind his head. He obviously flexes his muscles, but Levi just smiles serenely down at him. His heart is still beating a million times faster than it should, but he’s not giving in right now.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” Nico sighs.

“Eh, dramatic,” Levi shrugs.

“Maybe. Still true, though.”

Levi doesn’t answer. What he does do is lie down next to Nico in the grass and stare up at the blue sky.

“What were you doing here by yourself, anyway?” Levi asks.

“Just relaxing.”

“Oh. I hope I didn’t interrupt.”

Nico moves one arm to wrap it around Levi’s shoulders, Levi’s head resting on it.

“I’m even more relaxed this way, actually,” Nico says.

Levi smiles and closes his eyes. “Yeah, me too.”

-

They stay there for a good couple of hours, until the sun reaches them and gets too hot to be comfortable anymore.

Lunch is served on the patio by Vik, who’s a surprisingly great cook. He earns back all the respect he’d lost as soon as he’d come into the resort and tried to get with everybody by keeping on feeding them, until they’re all so full that they can’t do much other than lie down.

They hear the knock on the front door because nobody is making a noise.

“Let’s just ignore it,” Taryn groans.

A few hums of agreement go around the group. The knocking continues.

“If we stand still maybe it won’t notice us,” Link whispers.

The knocking not only doesn’t stop, but it gets even more insistent. They all try paying no mind to it, but after a while it gets way too annoying, so Levi rolls off the couch and jogs towards the door.

In front of it, on the ground, there’s a white envelope on top of a small carboard box. Levi picks them up without questioning it too much, then walks back outside and works on opening them.

Everyone is trying not to show how interested they are in finding out what’s written in the letter, definitely failing.

“It’s another group activity,” Levi reads out loud.

“No more tying each other up,” Dahlia complains.

“No, it’s… a communication thing,” Levi keeps reading. “It’s to, like, see how much we’ve found out about each other so far.”

“That’s even worse,” Dahlia groans, dramatically throwing her hands up.

“What do we actually have to do?” Nico asks.

Levi scans the page, smiles to himself, and looks around at everybody else. They’re not pretending not to be interested anymore.

“We have to evaluate ourselves and the person we’ve grown closer to, then see if we agree, basically,” Levi explains.

He meets everyone’s eye, and most of them look like they understand, so he opens the box and takes out the pieces of paper and the pens that are in it, passing them out.

“It also says that we should stand up in couples for this, but that’s not happening,” Levi continues.

“Who am I supposed to do this with?” Vik asks.

Levi throws him the letter. “You can read out the questions.”

Vik rolls his eyes, but picks up the paper anyway. He sits up straighter, clears his throat, then looks around at all of them with a smirk.

“Alright, are we ready to be disappointed?” he says out loud.

Nico rolls his eyes and nudges Levi with his shoulder. It’s more of a touch than a nudge, since he doesn’t move away afterwards, but Levi just purposefully leans into it as he brings his knees up and props his piece of paper on them.

“First question: would this person ever rob a bank?”

Eyebrows wither rise in surprise or furrow in confusion.

“Are you serious?” Levi asks.

Vik sighs dramatically. “No, I’m kidding. But the actual questions are so lame.”

“You’re lame,” Casey shoots back. “Just read them and let’s get done with this.”

“Ugh, okay. Does this person prefer roses or daisies? See? Lame.”

Nobody answers him, since they’re too busy actually writing down the answers. They are in fact stupid questions, but they’re not that obvious. Granted that it doesn’t mean anything if they know these things or not, but it’s interesting anyway.

“Do we show each other right away?” Jo asks.

“I don’t know, whatever,” Vik shrugs.

Levi laughs to himself, thinking about how this is probably meant to be useful in some way, or at least supposed to be taken seriously. He writes down ‘probably lilies’, then waits for Nico to be done, until Vik counts down for them to turn the paper.

Nico has written ‘sunflowers’ and then drawn a quick sketch of one. Levi thought he would pick roses, and he wouldn’t have been wrong, but he thinks he likes this option more. Based on the way Nico is smiling happily, he likes it too.

“Why sunflowers?” Levi has to ask.

“They’re bright and like the sun,” Nico smiles. “Why lilies?”

“They’re elegant,” Levi bites his lower lip. “And I like them.”

“I thought I was supposed to like them.”

“Do you not like them?”

Nico laughs, then nods. “Yeah, I do.”

Satisfied, Levi plays with the pen in his hands as he waits for everyone to be done.

“Next question: video games or board games?”

Levi has to think about it for a second. He imagines Nico sitting down at a table throwing dice first, and then sprawled on a couch with a controller in his hands, and the answer immediately comes to him. They don’t even wait for Vik to tell them; they just turn the paper around and laugh.

“Guilty,” Nico admits. “I could spend days playing video games.”

“I like board games,” Levi confirms. “Although I’m not opposed to a good video game.”

“Noted,” Nico winks. “I’m sure we could make it work.”

That feels like he’s saying something about the future without actually doing so, and it makes Levi’s stomach flip upside down. The mental image from earlier changes to both of them sprawled on the couch playing video games together, or just Levi watching Nico play… and it’s nice. So nice.

“Game night?” Levi suggests.

Nico’s eyes sparkle as he nods. With every second that passes Levi gets more convinced that all of this is just a very elaborated dream he’s having, because it can’t be true. He’ll enjoy it for as long as it lasts, anyway.

“Third question: who is more likely to break this place’s rules?”

Levi scrunches his nose to hide the smirk on his face, but a sneaky glance at Nico reveals that they’re thinking the same thing. There is definitely no doubt on this one.

They quickly write down their answers, wait for everybody else to be done, and then turn the papers around. Levi gasps in outrage.

“How dare you!” he shrieks. “I would never!”

“I beg to differ,” Nico raises his hands in defence. “This morning is proof.”

“What happened this morning?” Taryn immediately jumps in.

“Absolutely nothing happened this morning,” Levi talks over her.

“Yeah, because I stopped you,” Nico adds unhelpfully.

Levi balls up the paper and throws it in Nico’s face. “In your dreams.”

“You have no idea,” Nico mumbles, and Levi is done.

He stands up and takes a couple of steps away from the couch, just to put as much distance between himself and Nico as possible, because if he doesn’t there are going to be problems. And since he can’t do much to deal with said problems, it would probably be better to avoid them altogether.

“I’m leaving,” Levi announces. “Don’t make noise when you come to bed, all of you.”

“There are two more questions,” Vik calls after him.

“I couldn’t care less,” Levi waves him away.

“I guess you don’t care about what else is in the box.”

Levi wants to keep going, but something tells him he should stay. He knows everybody is looking at him, but he still stops in his tracks and retraces his steps, coming to sit on the back of the couch and looking expectantly at Vik.

“I’m only telling you because I’m excited about them as well,” Vik starts.

He reaches into the bottom of the box and takes out a smaller box. Inside that there are two rows of neatly arranged watches. They’re black and slender, and they look like they’re missing an actual screen, which is replaced by a series of small LED lights.

“These,” Vik explains, showing them around. “Are our only beacon of hope.”

“What can smart watches do for us?” Jackson asks.

“They will light up with a green light when they decide that two people have developed a real connection.”

Silence falls over the group as they all try to process the news.

“Okay, but what does the green light mean?”

Vik smirks. “It means we get a free kiss.”

That’s both underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. The prospect of getting to finally actually kiss immediately goes to Levi’s head, but he already knows that it’s absolutely not going to be enough. Still, it’s better than nothing.

He bites the inside of his cheek and slowly turns to the side, and finds that Nico is already looking at him.

“We finally get to make out?” Link asks, to make sure.

“If the light turns green. And that only happens if there is a real connection,” Vik repeats.

“How do we know if the connection is real?”

“The light will turn green if it is.”

They keep going through the same loop for a while, but no one is paying enough attention to stop them. They’re all busy trying to understand if they have a chance at getting that free pass for just a kiss.

Levi accepts the watch Vik passes him, turns it over in his hands and thinks that maybe he’s going to get some real use out of this. Hopefully.

-

Ironically enough, any kind of connection is prevented from happening because all anyone can think about anymore is the damned watch; eyes keep straying from people’s faces during conversations to glance down and check if there’s a green light on their wrist.

It’s cold outside tonight, so most of the hanging out is happening inside. Levi can’t stand that much chattering and flirting in a small space, though, so he bundles up and steps outside, going to sit on the chair he’s basically claimed as his by now.

The sky is clear even if the air is freezing, so Levi lies back and takes a deep breath as he just looks at the few stars he can see. That, combined with the sound of the ocean in the dark, immediately makes Levi’s eyelids feel much heavier.

He’s totally expecting it when he hears footsteps coming closer, so much so that he would have been confused if they hadn’t been there. He hooks his chin over his own shoulder and smiles at Nico’s figure coming closer.

“This is becoming a bit of a thing,” he says as Nico sits down on the chair next to his.

“Do you want it to stop?”

“You already know I don’t.”

“Yeah, I just like hearing you say it,” Nico grins.

Levi wants to roll his eyes, but he has to give into the shiver that suddenly hits him when the wind picks up a bit.

“Are you cold?” Nico notices.

“A bit,” Levi admits.

Nico points to his own chest. “Do you want my sweater?”

Although he appreciates the way he asks and doesn’t just offer, Levi shakes his head. “I can just run inside and put something on.”

“Sure, if you wanna have to walk through everyone trying to get that watch to turn green,” Nico shrugs.

Levi considers it, then shakes his head to rid himself of the mental image.

“They’re all going at it, aren’t they?”

Nico laughs. “They’re trying.”

Levi looks down at his own arm and flips the watch around his wrist, then meets Nico’s eyes.

“Are we trying?” he asks in a small voice.

“Do we have to try?” Nico leans closer.

“Apparently,” Levi shrugs, nodding down towards his arm. “It’s not green.”

Nico scoffs. “That thing doesn’t know anything.”

Levi shrugs. “I guess.”

He must obviously look as not convinced as he actually feels, and Nico must see right through it, because he grabs the bottom of Levi’s chair and pulls it towards his own.

“We don’t have to try,” he continues, but this time his voice is low and rough.

“Because we’re already so good?” Levi tries.

“Because you like me, and I like you, and that’s all we need.”

He is standing just a breath away at this point. Levi swallows noisily and tilts his head to the side.

“We kind of need that green light as well, you know, or we break the rules,” he murmurs.

Nico moves one hand from the chair to the top of Levi’s thigh, then leans in even closer, so close, dangerously so.

“Is this against the rules?” he asks.

Levi shakes his head. Nico moves his head to the side and kisses his cheek.

“What about this?”

Not wanting to shake him off, Levi makes a noise in the back of his throat. Nico leans in even further and leaves another kiss right under Levi’s earlobe.

“Fuck,” Levi breathes.

Nico doesn’t even ask anymore. He just keeps going lower, kissing a line down Levi’s neck, until he reaches his collarbone. Levi gasps and fists his hands into the front of Nico’s sweater, heart beating so fast that even Nico must feel it against his lips.

A hand reaches up to grab the back of Levi’s neck, making him bend his head back and to the side, and Levi doesn’t fight it at all, pliant in Nico’s touch as he kisses and bites all over his neck.

“Yeah?” Nico mumbles against the skin.

“Still within the rules, I believe,” Levi nods.

He wishes the watch would just light up so he could literally jump Nico, but it’s not going to happen. Nico doesn’t seem to mind, happy to keep on sucking on the side of Levi’s neck, hands wandering as much as they’re allowed to.

“Don’t leave a mark,” Levi warns.

Nico makes a complaining noise, but stops biting the tender skin. He leans back and looks Levi in the face, his pupils blown wide and breathing heavily.

“I’ve never felt like this, so much so fast,” he admits.

Levi wants to cry. He unclenches his hands and reaches up to slide his fingers into Nico’s hair, not even bothering to be gentle about it. Nico doesn’t look like he minds that too much.

“Me neither,” Levi shakes his head.

“I know we’re supposed to be building something real that goes beyond just sex, but fuck,” Nico huffs. “I really wish we could do both.”

Laughing breathlessly, Levi copies Nico and leans in to kiss the underside of Nico’s jaw, the feeling of his rough stubble so welcome on his lips.

Nico lets out a small moan, and Levi just wants to cry. And rub himself all over Nico’s body. Maybe both.

“I don’t want to sound too sure of myself here, but I just want you to know that as soon as that fucking watch lights up…” Nico starts.

He doesn’t get to finish because Levi groans loudly and, as much as it physically pains him, pushes Nico away.

They sit back, each on their own chair, trying to catch their breath. Levi’s skin is tingling all over. It’s still so not enough.

“You’re…” Nico starts, and doesn’t finish.

“I am,” Levi agrees.

A couple of seconds of just staring at each other pass by. Levi is the first one to crack up, immediately followed by Nico, and soon enough they’re laughing so hard their bellies hurt. By the time they calm down, they are both sprawled out with their limbs all over each other.

“I can’t get enough,” Nico says on a breath.

Levi turns on his side and just looks at him for a while. He finds it so weird, because he’s so not used to it, but it’s true that he feels like he never wants to leave Nico’s side, and any amount of time they do get to spend together just proves him right.

Still, self-doubt is always just around the corner.

“You will, eventually,” Levi says.

Nico shrugs, to which Levi raises both eyebrows in surprise. “I think nobody likes everyone all the time.”

“True,” Levi agrees.

“So I like you now, and maybe I won’t like you at some point, but I’ll go back to liking you after that. It’s normal.”

Levi hums. “I still think that if we get to, like, fully hook up, all of this will fade away.”

“All of what?”

“You know, this feeling in here,” Levi tries to explain, gently knocking against his own stomach. “I think it’s just anticipation. It’ll go away.”

“You’ve got a feeling in there?” Nico smiles.

Every trace of the dark and twisted thoughts that had been running around Levi’s head move to the side to make space for more pleasant ones. They don’t completely disappear, but he can recognize that this is neither the place nor the moment.

“I’ve got many feelings in there,” Levi answers.

“Does one of them happen to be for me?”

Levi rolls his eyes, but Nico is smiling like he already knows the answer.

“I never said they were positive feelings,” Levi still tries to joke.

Nico must be done with him, though, because instead of keeping it up, he leans back in for one more kiss high on Levi’s cheekbone.

“I would stay here and connect with you all night,” he mumbles still against Levi’s skin.

“Too much connecting is against the rules,” Levi reminds him.

“That’s why I need to remove myself from the situation.”

He stands up and turns around before Levi has a chance to react, but he gets it a couple of seconds later. Levi’s face feels like it suddenly goes up in flames and his heart skips a beat. The mental image is absolutely going to haunt him for the rest of the night.

“It’ll probably be safe to come to bed in about half an hour!”

Oh, that’s right. They’re still sharing a bed. Nice.

Then Levi runs Nico’s words again through his head, and he blinks in surprise.

“It takes half an hour to make that thing safe?!”


	6. Day 6

“If you keep talking I’m gonna drown you.”

“That’s not very nice,” Vik pouts.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” Link sighs.

Levi hides his face into the crook of his elbow and laughs at the arguing. They’ve been going at it for a couple of hours, because Vik won’t drop his plan of converting everybody to breaking the rules, and Link has apparently decided that threats are the way to go.

“I don’t understand why you’re all okay with being limited like this,” Vik throws his arms in the air.

“Most of us can survive without jerking off for a day,” Link answers.

A chuckle goes around the room, but nobody dares adding anything. Probably because after almost a full week in here with only temptations and no relief, they’re all starting to feel affected. Still, they’re not being as annoying as Vik, who’s only been here for a couple of days anyway.

So far, crossed legs and deep breaths have managed to do the job.

“The fact that you can doesn’t mean that you should,” Vik insists.

“Look,” Jo steps in. “None of us is happy about the conditions of being here, trust me.”

“Then do what you want!”

“I am!” she points to her currently being wrapped up in Link’s arms.

“But you just said you’re not happy about it,” Vik points out.

“There’s the chance that the watch will grant me a little joy,” Jo shrugs.

“That’s not enough for me,” Vik mumbles.

Jackson sighs and sits up from where he’d been lying on a pool floatie. “Vik, come here.”

“Why?”

The answers he gets is just a blank expression from Jackson. They stare at each other for a while, then Vik actually gives in and walks over to the pool, sitting down on the edge. Jackson pushes himself from the opposite wall and floats right in front of him.

“You know I’m right,” Vik says.

Jackson smiles up at him and nods. Then, all of a sudden, he grabs Vik’s arm and pulls him into the pool in one swift movement.

The noise of their fighting fades to the background as Levi tunes into another, more familiar and welcome sound.

“Hey, you,” Nico greets him quietly. “Did I miss all the fun? You could have woken me up.”

“Oh, I tried,” Levi laughs, looking up at him. “You were having none of it.”

Nico bends over the back of the chair to drop a kiss on Levi’s shoulder and drops a letter in his lap.

Levi picks it up and turns it over in his hands. “What’s this? Your resignation?”

“We’ve been summoned,” Nico whispers right against Levi’s ear.

Frowning, Levi opens the letter and quickly reads what’s written on it. His eyes scan the page and the smile on his face grows exponentially with every word. When he’s finally done, he leans back to look at Nico again, who’s matching his ecstatic expression.

“Really?” he asks breathlessly.

“Oh yeah, it was waiting for us on the nightstand,” Nico nods, leaning in to bite the side of Levi’s neck.

“How the hell did it get on the nightstand?” Levi wonders out loud.

“I wouldn’t ask too many questions,” Nico chuckles. “So, are you up for it?”

Levi reaches up to scratch through Nico’s hair, and Nico moans into his shoulder.

“Oi, you two, knock it off!”

Nico stands back up straight, then reaches for Levi’s hand and helps him get up.

“Don’t worry, we’re disappearing for the rest of the day,” he announces. “We got kindly invited to enjoy the private suite.”

Cries of outrage and catcalls alike follow them as Nico leads Levi down the path that crosses the garden. Levi laughs, but follows Nico even when he takes a left turn that takes them to a tall iron gate.

“This was in the envelope as well,” Nico shows him a key.

He uses it to open the gate and then lock it back up behind them, and finally they’re completely by themselves for the first time in a week.

“What did we do to deserve this?” Levi whispers.

In front of them is a small building with huge windows that open up onto the garden. From where they’re standing, they can see a huge bed covered in soft-looking pillows and, most importantly, no other beds anywhere near it.

“I think whoever is in charge has a soft spot for us,” Nico laughs.

“Do you think they can see us at all times?” Levi whispers.

They both look around in suspicion, but nothing seems out of the ordinary.

“It’s not like there’s much to see,” Nico shrugs.

“It is kind of mean to give us all of this when there’s only so much we can do,” Levi pouts.

“They’re testing us,” Nico whispers conspirationally.

“They’ve been testing us for a while,” Levi groans.

Nico sighs in a way that means don’t I know it, then grabs Levi’s hand and walks them towards the door. “C’mon, let’s explore.”

-

The private suite turns out to be exactly that; it looks similar to a really fancy hotel room, complete with an ensuite and a patio in the back. Everything smells like the beach but it’s all clean and, most importantly, empty.

They’re just on the other side of a fence, but it feels like they’re miles away from anybody. It’s both a reassuring and dangerous thought.

“Oh my god, there’s a hot tub,” Levi deadpans.

“This might be the sexiest thing yet,” Nico gasps.

“Let’s get in,” Levi pats Nico’s shoulder excitedly.

It takes them a couple of minutes to figure out, but they manage to turn it on, the water heating up in a blink of an eye. They’re already wearing their swimming suits, so they just dip their feet in and then sit in the bubbling water.

Nico puts his arms along the edge of the tub, lets his head fall back, and groans out loud. Levi crosses his legs and lets the water come up to his chin. Dangerous, so dangerous.

“Oh, this is heaven on my back,” Nico sighs.

“You have back problems?” Levi asks.

“Yeah, I got too tall too fast and I never recovered,” Nico explains.

Levi pictures a teenage Nico, all lanky limbs and uncoordinated movements, and can’t hide the fond smile that appears on his face.

“Is there anything I can do to help? I don’t know, rub your shoulders?” Levi offers.

Nico’s eyes sparkle when he looks at him. “That’s nice of you to ask. But I think the water is doing enough for now.”

“Okay. Raincheck, then.”

“Raincheck,” Nico confirms.

The conversation ends comfortably there, so they both let the hot water relax and loosen them up. Not that there’s much to be stressed about in here, but it does relieve them of some tension.

“Do you feel like being really honest and share way too much?” Nico asks out of the blue.

“Always,” Levi answers immediately.

Nico smiles, then squints his eyes open and looks at Levi for a bit.

“What do you think is a flaw of yours?” is the question.

Levi actually thinks about it, looking off to the side and mulling it over. About a million different jokes come up, but he doesn’t think that Nico is asking for that right now.

“I expect people to feel as much as I do, and get very hurt when they don’t,” is what he settles for.

Nico hums. “That sounds like it has a backstory.”

“Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine,” Levi smiles.

They’ve somehow drifted closer to each other as they were talking, the tips of their knees touching.

“I have a hard time just saying how I feel,” Nico says.

“And what do you do instead?”

Nico makes a face and looks down at his hands. “I, uh. I retreat into myself and turn people who want to help away.”

That sounds… difficult. Levi is very careful not to let any judgement show on his face, though, because it wouldn’t be fair. Instead, he nods and purposefully lets their thighs connect.

“I know it’s not ideal,” Nico continues. “But, you know, it’s me.”

“You don’t have to be ideal,” Levi whispers. “You just have to be you.”

Nico scoffs. “Yeah, you say that now, but you would change your mind if you had to deal with it.”

Levi slides even closer to him, lifting his leg and letting it rest on top of Nico’s.

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?” he says, voice gentle.

Their eyes meet and they both smile. The water keeps bubbling around them, the birds chirping somewhere in the distance. It’s sunny, and warm, and it’s so peaceful. Once again, Levi feels like he never wants to move from this exact spot ever again.

“Did you hear that?”

Levi shakes himself out of his thoughts. “Hear what?”

“The watch,” Nico gasps.

Realization lights Levi’s face up. He glances down at his wrist and finds that the watch is, in fact, green.

“It’s lit up,” Levi states.

“Fuck yes it is!”

Nico wraps both hands around Levi’s waist and pulls Levi in like he weighs nothing. Levi straddles Nico’s hips, laughing as the water sloshes up against the side of the hot tub.

He starts leaning in, but stops before their lips actually touch.

“It’s not like I was only waiting for this, I mean, I like spending time with you even if-“

Nico kisses him and effectively shuts him up. Levi moans into it and slides his fingers into the hair at the back of Nico’s head, making him lean back to deepen the kiss.

Levi tries to take in as many details as he can – how plump Nico’s lips are, the way his hands squeeze Levi’s hips, the small noises Nico makes as they move from one kiss to the other.

They’re completely wrapped up in each other, their chests pressed together so tightly that Levi can feel Nico’s heartbeat against his own.

“Is this too much?” Nico gasps all of a sudden.

He leans back, but a string of saliva still connects their lips. Levi looks down at it and literally stops thinking for a second. He only comes back to it because Nico kisses him again, just a peck, but it’s enough.

“It’s good,” Levi nods.

That seems to reassure Nico. He deflates and lets his hands slide down to cover the small of Levi’s back, pushing his hips towards his own ever so slightly.

“So fucking good,” Nico mumbles.

Levi can’t stop himself from leaning down and kissing him again, this time slower, with less urgency. It somehow makes the fire spreading inside Levi burn even hotter. He never wants this feeling to stop.

Out of the corner of his eye Levi catches sight of the watch on his wrist. Suddenly he remembers his surroundings, and most importantly that this is all temporary. Nico bites the side of his neck, though, so Levi chuckles and tugs on his hair.

“You’re so…” Levi starts, then lets the sentence hang in the air between them.

Nico nods as if he agrees even if he doesn’t know with what. Levi feels his heart clench with fondness, so he kisses Nico, just a wet press of lips against lips, then leans back. Nico follows him and connects their lips again, and this time it lingers.

Their tongues meet in a deeper kiss, and it’s all so hot and smooth that Levi feels tingles travel up and down his spine.

It seems like they got the desperation out of their systems, and now they’re just kissing slowly, breathing heavily and brushing gentle hands down each other’s backs and shoulders.

Then Levi shifts his hips and he rubs right against Nico’s, the contact making him gasp directly into Nico’s mouth. They both groan quietly, Nico answering with a shallow thrust of his own.

Their watches both beep loudly.

“What the fuck?!” Levi yells, so startled that he pushes himself up instinctively.

“I think time’s up,” Nico pants.

The green light has indeed turned off, signalling that they are no more at liberty to do what they want. Levi wants to cry.

“That’s so mean,” Levi complains.

“It’s fucking torture, is what it is,” Nico groans loudly.

Levi realizes he’s still hovering in the middle of the hot tub, so he lets himself relax and sit down in the water. The longer he just sits to catch his breath, the more he can feel the throbbing between his legs.

He’s never been more grateful for bubbles. Not necessarily because he doesn’t want Nico to know, but because he totally already does and there’s tragically nothing either of them can do about it. What they don’t see can’t hurt them.

“That was great, by the way,” Nico sighs after a few seconds.

“Appreciate the feedback,” Levi nods. “I liked the whole ‘horny Nico experience’ thing as well.”

Nico attempts a bow and spreads out more comfortably on his side of the tub. Levi looks at him until their gazes meet, after which they crack up and start laughing under their breath.

“I have a suggestion,” Nico starts when they calm down.

“I’m listening.”

“We make the most out of this hot tub, then we go inside and take advantage of the chance to nap in peace for however long we want.”

Levi pretends to have to think about it, but it’s clear that he’s more than on board.

“It’s a date,” he nods.

Nico grins happily, and Levi grins back, and it’s nice until Nico decides to be an ass and splash him, and Levi doesn’t have a choice but splash him as well until he asks for mercy.

-

The sheets are soft and cool when Levi wakes up. He feels heavy and well rested, but he still never wants to move from here. Especially when he cracks one eye open and finds Nico already looking at him, features softened by sleep.

“Good morning,” Nico whispers.

Levi glances at the wall of windows over Nico’s shoulder. “It’s dark out,” he points out.

“Good evening, then,” Nico laughs.

“No lights on, no loud talking, no snoring,” Levi moans. “If we lock ourselves in here we won’t have to leave.”

Nico hums and scoots closer to Levi. He slowly lifts the sheet he has wrapped around himself and sneaks a hand out to touch Levi’s arm, fingers rubbing the sleep-warm and soft skin of the inside of his elbow.

“I feel funny business coming on,” Levi murmurs, but he can’t help but smile.

“I feel a lot of things,” Nico sighs like it’s such a burden on him.

Levi smiles at him, arms stretched over his head and tucked under his pillow. Nico looks at him appreciatively, his eyes travelling over his body a couple of times, then buries his face into his own pillow and groans.

“You’re hot,” Levi can hear him mumble into the fabric.

He’s been so open with his compliments, but never so much that it actually turns annoying, and while it flatters Levi more than he thought it would, he starts thinking that it wouldn’t hurt him to reciprocate a bit.

“You’re really handsome,” Levi compliments back.

Nico slowly peeks out from the confines of the pillow. “Keep going,” he mumbles.

Levi laughs and moves so that his head is lying next to Nico’s.

“You have fantastic hair, even when it’s messy. Especially when it’s messy,” he starts. “And your hands are huge. In a nice way. A ‘I kind of want them all over me’ way.”

Nico is smiling so hard that his eyes are crinkled up at the corners, so Levi reaches out to run the tip of one finger over the wrinkles.

“I like your eyes so much. And your lips are really soft and not chapped at all,” he continues.

“I take good care of them.”

“I also don’t mind those iron abs. And that ass!” Levi the tips of his fingers in a chef’s kiss.

They both burst out laughing. That particular moment is gone, but it’s still really nice, lying in bed this close, but with no plans on going anywhere. This, right here, like this, is something Levi tries his best to fix in his mind.

Whatever happens after this doesn’t matter. Even if this is the peak of Levi’s stay in here, it’s enough. Nico is smiling in a way that suggests he’s thinking something along the same line.

The silence hovering over them doesn’t last long; Levi’s stomach decides to break it by rumbling loudly.

“Oh god, me too,” Nico groans, rolling over and pulling the sheets with him.

Levi follows them, fully lying for just a second on top of Nico’s back. Nico groans but doesn’t even attempt to move away, so Levi leans down and kisses his cheek with a loud smack.

“I smell food,” Levi exclaims before finally jumping out of bed. “I think we’re being fed!”

They have, indeed, been provided with food. Levi still tries really hard not to think of who exactly it is that’s leaving them letters and food, focusing instead on the covered tray sitting in the middle of the table in the garden.

Nico comes running out of the bedroom, catching Levi’s waist with one arm and lifting him up, spinning around and then letting him down near one of the chairs. Levi glares at him, but he’s fairly sure they both see the blush on his cheeks.

They sit down at the table and immediately dig in, sorting sandwiches and snacks between the two of them as if they’ve been doing it for months rather than for days. They eat in silence, both looking off in different directions and enjoying the quiet of the early night.

“This kind of feels like a honeymoon, doesn’t it?” Levi asks after a while.

“Uh, yeah, except for one thing that would definitely be happening that we can’t do here.”

He doesn’t need to explain himself, because they’re absolutely thinking the same thing. They’re both surely aware that there isn’t anything actually keeping them from doing whatever they want, not in here, but breaking the rules that way doesn’t hold that much appeal anymore.

It’s almost more fun to have this one forbidden thing. Not forever, but for now it is. Levi is not bothered.

Nico stretches one arm behind his back, the muscles in his side shifting attractively, and Levi is bothered for a moment. Just a moment, then he’s fine. Totally fine.

“Yeah, well,” he shrugs. “It’s a different kind of honeymoon.”

“Just as good,” Nico nods, holding his glass up.

Levi clinks his own glass against Nico’s. “Just as good.”

Their dinner turns out to be more of a picnic, but neither of them had to make it and they don’t have to clean up, so they’re not going to complain. Once they’re done they just put all the trash back under the tray it came in and leave it off for the mysterious entities to take care of.

“Want to hit the hot tub again?” Nico asks.

Levi hums. “I kind of just want to lie down.”

“Bed?”

“No. Out here,” he decides.

Nico just goes with it. Levi is wholly won over by his willingness to indulge in whatever Levi has suggested so far. This boy is going places with him if he keeps it up.

“I’m glad you support my passion for lying in the grass,” Nico chuckles as they settle down.

“How could I not,” Levi sighs as he sidles up to Nico.

The ground is cool, but it’s not wet, and the strands of grass tickle the bottoms of Levi’s ears. He props his head on Nico’s shoulder and grabs his forearm, cuddling it against his own chest. Nico splays his fingers out and presses down on the flat of Levi’s stomach.

“I’m so full,” Nico mumbles.

Levi hums. “I kind of have space for dessert.”

He can feel Nico’s fingers dig ever so slightly into his skin, then smooth over the points of pressure and keep rubbing back and forth.

“Thinking about it, maybe I do as well,” Nico decides.

“Do you now,” Levi smirks. “What kind?”

“I like cakes. What about you?”

“Ice cream is my go-to.”

“Ice cream cake would make the both of us happy then,” Nico chuckles.

Levi leans back and turns to the side to look at Nico’s profile. “Yeah, ice cream cake is the way to go.”

Nico smiles up at the sky, then turns as well to face Levi. His eyes flicker between Levi’s eyes and his mouth, every time lingering more than the previous one, and eventually just settling on it.

“What are you thinking about?” Levi asks him.

“Do you want the honest answer or the safe one?” Nico grins.

Levi pretends to think about it. “Honest, please.”

“I’m thinking about saying fuck the rules and just kissing you again.”

A shiver runs down Levi’s back. He will admit that the thought had crossed him as well; his fear that getting to actually kiss would make the anticipation and excitement disappear had been proven wrong, so wrong.

All he can think about is how much he wants it again, and again, and again.

“We can’t,” Levi whispers.

“I know. But I still want to.”

Levi bites his lower lip. He can’t, they can’t. They shouldn’t. It would be better if they didn’t.

He can feel his restraint start to break with every second that passes.

“The others would kill us,” Levi tries to argue.

Nico’s eyes are basically sparkling at this point. “They would understand.”

He starts sliding one hand down Levi’s back slowly, fingertips tracing the bumps of his spine.

“It’s so predictable,” Levi continues. “Coming here and breaking the rules.”

“Exactly, they sent us here just for that,” Nico insists.

Levi is already bending his head back to get as close as possible to Nico without having to actually move, but he keeps arguing just for the sake of it.

“What if we’re the only ones who ever do this?” he goes for a last resort.

Nico laughs out loud at that. “Oh, you really haven’t been paying attention, have you?”

That leaves Levi wondering exactly how much he’s missed while sunbathing by the pool, but it’s quickly overshadowed by Nico pressing on his shoulder and rolling them so that he’s lying between Levi’s legs.

“Holy shit,” Levi gasps.

“We can, just this once,” Nico whispers.

He’s backlit, the sun making the tips of his hair glow golden, and his shoulders are wide, muscles bulging from the way he’s holding himself up. There is only one way this can end, really.

Levi leans up and catches Nico’s lips in a kiss. Nico moans into it, hands reaching around to slide under Levi’s back and pull him even closer.

From this position he kisses deeply and with full control of the situation, and Levi’s head starts spinning immediately.

Nico moves to kiss Levi’s cheek, then his jaw, then bites his neck, and finally moves back to his lips. His kisses are slow and deliberate, tongue sliding against Levi’s, hot, wet, firm. Levi starts sweating and it’s not because the weather is warm.

“We have to stop,” Nico gasps.

Instead of agreeing, Levi reaches down and grabs Nico’s ass with both hands. Nico yelps, but the noise immediately turns into another moan. Levi laughs, but it’s not because any of this is funny.

Nothing is funny. Nico leans back into Levi’s hands and then lets his hips drop forward, fully rubbing against Levi’s groin. It’s so not funny that Levi’s eyes get filled with tears and he has to force himself to pull away.

Nico follows him and barely allows a breath to pass between them before joining their lips again. Levi smiles into it and lets the kiss go on for just a couple of minutes before he presses one hand against Nico’s chest.

“Alright, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Nico chants as he drops one last kiss on the corner of Levi’s lips and drops down in the grass next to him.

“That was so worth it,” Levi laughs, still breathing heavily.

They’re both bending their legs and turning their hips away from each other to conceal a specific situation, but Levi feels satisfied. He still feels dizzy and the tips of his fingers are tingling, but he’s happy.

Nico turns on his side and runs one hand over Levi’s stomach to wrap it around his hip, tucking his head into Levi’s shoulder and kissing right under his ear. Levi tilts his head to give him more space, then covers Nico’s hand with his own and sighs.

The kisses on his neck are slow and don’t mean to lead anywhere. They’re just for a place of contact, and Levi honestly doesn’t know how to deal with it. It all feels both way too fast and like it’s taking forever to happen.

“Are we partners in crime now?” Nico wonders out loud.

Levi snorts, then shrugs. They kind of are. Instead of answering, though, he cuddles back into Nico’s arms and lets his eyes fall shut.


	7. Day 7

They must move to the bed at some point, because when Levi wakes up the first thing he can feel is sheets wrapped tight around him and sweat covering the small of his back. He stretches his legs out, then turns his head on the pillow and cracks one eye open.

The room is bathed in light, so it can’t be that early. Nico is still lying in the bed next to him, arms crossed under his pillow and face smushed into it, hair a complete mess. His back is flushed and just as sweaty as Levi’s, so at least he’s not alone in this.

Levi takes a couple of seconds to look at him and his peaceful expression, then reaches out with a finger and traces Nico’s nose with it, from the skin between his eyebrows down to the tip. Nico scrunches his face up at the feeling and starts stirring from his sleep.

“I was dreaming,” he complains, voice rough and slurred.

“About what?”

“We were swimming in the ocean.”

“I was there too?” Levi smiles.

“Yeah, you were complaining that the water was too cold.”

Levi rolls his eyes and Nico chuckles. They’re both lying on their bellies, faces turned towards each other, the sheets wrapped around their shoulders.

“I could do with some cold water right now, actually,” Levi comments. “It’s way too hot in here.”

Nico groans in agreement. “Me too. You’re a small furnace when you sleep.”

“Me? You could literally see heat waves coming off of you,” Levi scoffs.

“I choose to take that as a compliment,” Nico grins.

Levi doesn’t disagree with it, just shrugs and throws the sheets off of himself. He takes a deep breath of relief when the cool air finally gets to hit his overheated skin, and Nico quickly copies him.

“What time do we have to go back to the others?” Levi asks.

“I think we can go whenever we want. Why, do you have something planned?”

Levi kicks a leg out to try and hit him, but he misses by a long shot. “What kind of guy do you think I am?”

Nico smirks. “I’ve seen first-hand what kind of guy you are.”

Refusing to fall for the trap, Levi just hums and sits up, stretching his back out. He feels Nico’s fingers gently touch the back of his hip, and he lets himself enjoy the feeling for just a moment.

Soon the feeling of the sweat drying on his skin starts feeling gross enough, so Levi pats Nico’s arm and slides his legs off the bed.

“I’m going to take a shower,” he says, then pauses and looks over his shoulder. “Want to join?”

Nico’s cheeks go red so quickly that it would be funny, if Levi’s weren’t in the same exact condition. He swallows visibly and bites his lower lip, then meets Levi’s eyes and nods.

“Just a shower, though,” Levi specifies.

“Of course,” Nico nods exaggeratedly. “What kind of guy do you think _I_ am?”

Levi doesn’t answer, because that would entail actually thinking about it, and it wouldn’t lead anywhere. Well, it would lead somewhere, but it’s not allowed to.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Levi nods his head towards the ensuite.

They climb out of bed and shuffle into the bathroom, where the huge shower is waiting for them. Levi turns on the water, putting a hand under the stream to check the temperature.

Behind him, he can hear the noise of Nico pulling his clothes off and his heart picks up its rate just the slightest, so he tells himself to calm down and be, like, cool about this. He can definitely do that.

“Not too hot, yeah?”

Levi takes in a breath out of surprise, nodding towards the shower head. The water is just warm enough, so he pulls his hand back and reaches for the bottom of his t-shirt. He hesitates just a second before pulling it over his head, figuring that they’ve seen each other shirtless enough times for it to be okay at this point.

Once he’s thrown it in the corner of the room to be picked up later, Levi hooks his thumbs into his shorts and starts pulling them down. He stops when he feels Nico gently press a hand between his shoulder blades as he passes by him and steps into the shower.

He’s already stripped off, so Levi gulps and hurries in getting undressed as well, getting in and closing the door behind the both of them. Then they’re left there, completely naked, the water falling and creating a sort of steamy wall between them.

Nico smiles serenely at him and grabs the bottle of soap, squeezing some of it in his hands and then passing it to Levi.

“This is a nice shower,” Nico comments.

“Yeah, it is,” Levi nods, lathering himself up. “It’s… big.”

His eyes widen as soon as the words come out of his mouth, but he tries his best not to let it show too much. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Nico smirking, but he thankfully doesn’t say anything.

“I like the pressure of the water,” Nico continues. “It pounds just the right places.”

Levi splutters and Nico laughs, the tension of the moment finally broken.

“Shut up,” Levi rolls his eyes. “Asshole.”

“Hey!” Nico splashes water at him. “That’s not nice.”

“Yeah, well, life isn’t nice sometimes,” Levi shrugs.

Nico ignores him in favour of taking a step forward. Levi slowly lifts his eyes to look at his face, all air leaving his lungs when he meets Nico’s gaze. He’s standing directly under the water, soap suds running off the sides of his face and down his chest.

They stare at each other for what feels like hours, but it’s probably just a couple of seconds. Levi wants nothing more than to lean up and kiss him silly, but he stays where he is.

“You missed a spot,” Levi whispers.

“What?” Nico frowns, but before he can say anything else, Levi splashes water directly into his face.

Nico coughs dramatically like Levi tried drowning him, and Levi just laughs at him as he quickly washes himself off. As pleasant as the water is, when they’re done showering it doesn’t take long for just standing there looking at each other to get a bit awkward.

“I’m gonna get you a towel, hold on,” Nico leans out of the shower.

Levi grants himself the permission to glance down just once, then busies himself with turning the water off. He might not need that towel after all; he’s burning so hot that the droplets must be just evaporating off of him.

Nico comes back and throws a towel directly in Levi’s face.

“C’mon, I’m hungry,” he says.

Levi knows he’s also taking a peek, he must be, and it’s okay. He just tries his best not to let it all affect him too much.

Ugh. He can’t wait for these rules to just end so he can start thinking with the right head again.

“After you,” Nico smiles, waving his hands towards the door.

He’s smiling like somebody who just got caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to but can’t be bothered to be sheepish about it. Levi rolls his eyes, slaps his ass with the towel and then runs out before Nico can catch him.

-

They eventually have to leave their little corner of grass and quiet. Not because anybody comes to tell them to come back or anything, but after they eat the food that has been dropped off for lunch they feel the need for lying by a body of water, and the hot tub is not enough.

So Nico unlocks the gate again and they walk back to the main area, their arms knocking against each other as they move. The private suite isn’t that far from the rest, so it really doesn’t take long for voices to start carrying through to them.

“You lucky motherfucker!”

Taryn appears out of seemingly nowhere, grabs Levi by the shoulders and drags him away before he can even begin to think about saying anything. Nico waves at him with laughter in his eyes, and Levi finds himself thinking that if that’s the last thing he sees before the others kill him, he’ll die happy.

“Please make it quick and as painless as possible,” Levi begs.

When Taryn finally stops and forces Levi to sit down on a random lounging chair, he realizes that Casey and Isaac are there as well.

“You ass,” Taryn keeps insulting him. “I need to live vicariously through you. Spit it out.”

Levi blinks at her. “What?”

“Ugh, did you get so much dick that it mushed up your brain?” she rolls her eyes.

“Shut up!” Levi gasps. “I didn’t get any dick.”

The three of them look genuinely confused.

“Yeah, right,” Casey chuckles. “Just say it. We won’t be jealous.”

Levi frowns. “There’s nothing to say.”

Casey and Taryn roll their eyes, but Isaac squints suspiciously at him.

“Are you really saying you two spent a day in there and didn’t even touch each other?” he asks, clear disbelief in his tone.

“I mean, the watches turned green once,” Levi shrugs.

Taryn sits down in front of Levi, grabs his shoulders and looks directly into his eyes.

“Levi Schmitt,” she says slowly. “Last night you did not, and I repeat, did _not_ have sex with that marble statue of a man you took into the private suite?”

They’re all looking at him with incredulous expressions. Levi still can’t tell if this is a trap or if he’s just missing something.

“We did have one other kiss when the watch wasn’t on,” he admits.

He’s expecting them to be disappointed, or angry, or literally have any reaction at all. Instead, they just keep staring at him like they’re waiting for him to add more to the story.

“Wait, you guys aren’t mad that we broke the rules?” he asks to make sure.

“We’re mad that you didn’t break them enough!” Taryn throws her hands in the air.

Levi is really confused. Casey shakes his head and Isaac pats him on the back consolingly, while Taryn looks at him like he’s disappointed her in the worst way possible.

“So much lost potential,” she whispers.

“It wouldn’t have felt right,” Levi tries to defend himself.

Why he even has to defend anything is beyond him. This is not the reaction Levi was expecting from any of them. They are mad, but it’s for the wrong reason.

“Well, we had a lovely time anyway, thank you for asking,” he says before they can add anything else.

Taryn seems to realize that if they don’t change the tone of this conversation it could turn into something it’s not meant to be, so she puts on a different expression and lightly smacks him on the knee.

“We’re actually happy for the two of you,” she smiles genuinely. “You said that the watches turned green? That means that you’re, like, for real.”

Levi takes the metaphorical peace offering and mirrors her smile.

“Yeah,” he looks down at said watch on his wrist. “It was nice. Did it turn on for anybody else?”

“It did for us this morning,” Isaac smiles.

Casey looks smug, but when Levi catches his eye he can see the shadow of a blush on his cheeks.

“You guys are all so fucking sweet and I’m not jealous at all,” Taryn sighs.

Levi rolls his eyes at her. “You know, I’m pretty sure that the more time you spend with her, the higher the chance for the watch to grant you your wish.”

She seems to think about it for a bit and then quickly make up her mind; she stands up, pats all of them on the head and leaves, presumably in search of Carina. The rest of them watch her go almost with pride, then lean back in their seats and smile at each other.

“This place definitely seems to have been useful so far, hasn’t it?” Casey asks.

“Yeah. Sucks that we’re already halfway through.”

“I like to think of it more like we have seven more days to make it even better,” Isaac suggests.

“We have seven more days to get the bluest balls of our lives,” Levi corrects him.

They consider it for a while, then crack up despite how much they try not to. It’s the truth and they’re all sadly aware of its extent, and laughing about it is the only way they can try and deal with it. So they laugh.

“Seriously though, how is the private suite?” Casey asks.

“Private,” Levi chuckles. “But no, seriously, it’s great. There’s a huge bed and shower. Oh, and a hot tub.”

Isaac groans. “That sounds like a literal sex heaven.”

“Conditions allowing, I think it really is,” Levi sighs.

“Well, let’s hope we get it next, then,” Casey shrugs.

Levi doesn’t stop to think about what that means for too long. Instead, he pats the sides of his thighs and stands up.

“I’ll leave you two to whatever it is that you do, and I’ll go find Nico to do whatever it is that we do,” he announces.

“Have fun!” Casey calls after him.

Levi waves at them from over his shoulder and quickly jogs over to the pool. When he gets there he finds everybody else just lying around as usual, plus Nico sitting cross-legged on one lounging chair.

“Long time no see,” Levi smiles as he goes to stand next to him.

“Oh, did you do something different to your hair?” Nico keeps it up.

“Yeah, I washed it with this weird shampoo that made it look all curly and stuff.”

Nico puts his hands on Levi’s hips and guides him down to sit in his lap, then reaches up to run his fingers through Levi’s hair.

“We should look up where it’s sold, I like it,” he mumbles.

“And I should change my hair washing products because _you_ like it?” Levi raises one eyebrow.

“Uh,” Nico splutters. “I mean, I don’t… no, I-“

Levi grabs the sides of Nico’s face with both hands and drops one loud kiss on his forehead, laughing at Nico’s attempts at fixing what he said.

“I’m kidding,” Levi reassures him. “I like the curls too, although I think it has more to do with the sea than the shampoo.”

Nico keeps wrapping the curls around his fingers, putting his free hand behind his back and leaning into it. A wince quickly passes over his face and he tries to hide it with a smile, but Levi catches it.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing new, it’s just my lower back bothering me,” Nico shrugs.

Levi climbs off him and waves his fingers at Nico. “Do you want that massage now?”

Nico licks his lips and looks up at Levi as he thinks about it, then nods and scoots over to lie down on the chair on his front.

“Do you have some oil of some kind?” Levi asks.

“Yeah, the one Link has is mine.”

Levi quickly jogs over to where Link is soundly asleep on a chair of his own, picks up the bottle and goes back. He hesitates just a second when he has to decide how he wants to do this, then mentally shrugs and crawls up the chair to sit on the back of Nico’s thighs.

“Comfortable?” Nico laughs, turning his head to the side where it’s propped on his crossed arms.

“Very much so,” Levi wiggles his hips as he opens the bottle.

Nico shakes his head and hides his face into his arms, so Levi gets to focus on the task at hand. He drizzles some oil on Nico’s back, spreads it around for maximum coverage, then finally digs his thumbs in.

He doesn’t really have any strategy or actually knows what he’s doing, but Nico sighs and doesn’t scream in pain, so that’s a start. Plus, his muscles feel good under Levi’s hands, and it’s easy to find the knot at the bottom of Nico’s spine and press his knuckles into it.

A groan escapes Nico’s throat, and Levi feels it more than he hears it. He chooses to ignore it and keeps rubbing the oil into his skin, focusing on Nico’s lower back since he knows that’s what is troubling him the most.

Levi briefly looks up and around them and finds that nobody is paying attention, so he leans down and kisses Nico’s cheek.

“Is it better?” he whispers right in his ear.

“So much better,” Nico nods. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Levi kisses his cheek again.

“Anytime?” Nico lifts his head and grins.

“If you’re good,” Levi shrugs.

Nico pouts. “I’m good.”

“You are. You’re definitely good,” Levi smiles, unable to deny that.

“Want me to do you?”

Levi’s mouth drops open in outrage. “You say that stuff on purpose,” he accuses.

Nico shrugs with the most innocent expression he can muster up on his face. Levi meets his look with one of pure mistrust, then shoves a finger in Nico’s side, digging in even when Nico yells and laughs, trying to buck him off.

“Tickling is torture, please,” Nico gasps.

“You deserve it,” Levi continues jabbing his fingers in random places.

“I do, but please, enough!” Nico begs, face flushed bright red.

Levi lets up, but only because they’re making so much noise that the others are starting to glare at them. Nico deflates and catches his breath, and Levi rolls off of him and onto his chair, limbs still mostly all over Nico, but neither of them complains.

“All good with Taryn and the others?” Nico asks.

“Yeah,” Levi answers. “They were weirded out that we didn’t, um, do anything.”

Nico turns his head and peeks over his crossed arms.

“We did the right thing,” Levi points a finger at him.

“I didn’t say anything,” Nico defends himself.

Levi hums, but doesn’t add anything. They just stare at each other from way too close of a distance, smiling just for the sake of it, until Link jumps in the pool and splashes all of them. At that point they’re forced to break apart and join him, but they never stop smiling.

-

Bedtime comes earlier than usual that night. The air is humid and cold like it wants to rain but isn’t really committed to it, and none of them feel like hanging around on wet furniture with frizzy hair, so they just retreat to bed all at the same time.

And they all apparently felt like acting ten years younger than they actually are, because they find themselves lying under the covers in the complete dark, telling each other scary stories.

The concept isn’t that scary, but the stories are realistic enough that there isn’t a person in the room who isn’t clutching either the person in bed with them or the bed itself. Levi has forced Nico to switch with him so that he can feel safer stuck between him and the wall.

“I swear when I looked up there was someone staring at me from the corner of the window.”

“Someone?”

“Something, whatever,” Dahlia shrugs. “But it was looking right at me and, like, smiling.”

“Smiling?” Isaac whimpers.

“Yeah, it had the biggest smile. And it just stood there. Staring. Smiling.”

A shudder runs through everyone in the room. Levi pulls the blankets up to his nose and pointedly does not look at the window further down the wall he’s leaning against, and he’s absolutely not the only one. They’ll just pretend it’s not there for the night.

“I once caught someone looking at me through my window as well,” Jo says. “Except it wasn’t some random ghost. It was a robber trying to find his way in.”

“Oh my god, that’s even worse,” Taryn exclaims.

Levi tries his best to sink into the bed and disappear. He’d been a great supporter of them doing this tonight, but he’s definitely regretting it. He gets to a point where he starts thinking about asking the others to stop, but he doesn’t get to it.

He feels Nico’s hand move under the blanket, fingers sliding between Levi’s and squeezing them. Levi looks away from the corner of the room he’d been focused on and tries to meet Nico’s eye in the dark.

“You scared?” Nico whispers.

“Kind of,” Levi admits. “This kind of stuff creeps me out.”

“Me too,” Nico surprises him. “But I think a cuddle could make it better.”

Levi is glad for the lack of light in the room, so that he can smile as ridiculously big as he wants and have nobody know.

“Yeah, it probably would,” he answers. “C’mon, turn around.”

Nico chuckles. “You want to be big spoon?”

“I’m a great big spoon,” Levi defends himself.

Apparently that’s not where Nico meant, because Levi feels a hand brush against his cheek reassuringly.

“I was just making sure. I’m all for being little spoon,” Nico confirms.

He flips onto his side and Levi follows him, fitting himself against Nico’s back and wrapping his limbs around him. He slides one arm over Nico’s waist and hooks one leg over his hips, head resting on the back of his neck.

Nico covers Levi’s hand on his chest with his own, takes a deep breath and then slowly releases it.

“… I felt a hand on my back, but when I turned around nobody was there.”

“Why would a ghost be touching your back under the shower?”

“I don’t know, but it did.”

The stories are still going on in the background, but Levi has the solid wall on one side and Nico’s wide shoulders on the other, so he feels pretty safe. That combined with the fact that Nico creates heat like a small furnace, he’s getting more sleepy with every second that passes.

“I’ll protect you from the ghosts,” Nico mumbles against the pillow.

“I don’t need you to protect me form the ghosts,” Levi argues, even as he can’t keep his eyes open.

“We can fight them together, then.”

“Deal.”

Nico bends an arm behind himself and pats the closest part of Levi he can reach, which happens to be his thigh, then cuddles against his pillow again and mumbles something.

“What was that?” Levi frowns.

“I said I really like you,” Nico repeats.

Levi’s heart does about a million somersaults in his chest. He kisses the back of Nico’s shoulder as an answer, then stops for a second to think about the fact that this is the fourth night in a row they’re spending in the same bed.

Before he finally gives in to sleep despite the others still talking to each other across the room, Levi realizes that he’s getting used to this whole sleeping next to Nico thing. He isn’t sure if how fast that was is reassuring or worrying, but he guesses that it’s a problem for when he wakes up, at least.


	8. Day 8

It’s disgustingly hot when Levi wakes up. He throws the blanket off of himself and gasps, fanning himself to get at least a bit of fresh air.

“Ugh,” he groans when Nico rolls back and right over him.

“Why are you moving so much,” Nico asks, but it’s more of an annoyed statement.

“I’m melting,” Levi complains. “It’s so hot.”

Nico hums, but doesn’t add anything else that could be useful. In fact, he gets comfortable again and lets his eyes close, visibly ready to go back to bed. Levi is not about to suffer alone, though, so he starts nudging Nico’s side with his elbows as he continues fanning himself.

He keeps at it for long enough that Nico sighs heavily and turns his head to glare at him.

“Levi.”

“How are you not hot?”

“Well, I personally disagr-“

“Not first thing in the morning, please,” Levi interrupts what was obviously going to be a dumb joke. “This is a serious matter.”

“I don’t know what you want me to do about your raised body temperature.”

“Suffer with me,” Levi pouts.

Nico just looks at him with a neutral expression, and that’s the first moment Levi thinks Nico could potentially find him annoying enough to make him rethink this whole thing. It doesn’t last for long, though, because Nico ends up smiling and nodding at him.

“Get on your belly,” he says.

“How is that supposed to help?” Levi questions him.

“Just do it.”

There’s not much to lose here, so Levi sits up and does as told. He flips his pillow to the cool side, then flops down on it face first. It does immediately feel a bit better, but it’s short-lived, because he’s still sweating more than he should be doing at this hour of the morning.

He opens his mouth to say something, but he gets shut up by the feeling of Nico’s fingertips lightly running down his spine.

“Oh,” is all that comes out on a breath.

“Just try to go back to bed, it’s early,” Nico whispers.

Levi nods, mind already drifting away. Nico’s soft touch sends shivers through him, goosebumps appearing all over his skin. Nico keeps moving all over his back, from between his shoulders to his sides; it’s too light to be a tickle but still present enough to feel like a real touch.

“That’s nice,” Levi drawls.

“Sleep,” Nico reminds him, a smile in his voice.

And so Levi sleeps.

-

The next time they open their eyes, it’s definitely later in the morning. The sun is high in the sky and it’s shining inside the room, warming Levi’s feet at the bottom of the bed.

It seems that he’s the first one awake once again, since there’s barely any noise in the room. Levi opens one eye and looks around to check that he didn’t just accidentally sleep for half a day, and his soul almost jumps out of his body.

“Who the fuck are you?!” he yells.

There’s a girl standing in the middle of the room, hands on her hips as she looks down at all the full beds. She barely reacts. Levi is pretty sure he just had a minor heart attack.

“Well, good morning,” she smiles at him. “I was betting on who would wake up first.”

“What? Who are you?” Levi repeats.

The girl walks over to his bed and sits down on it like she owns the place. Levi is not entirely convinced that this isn’t a really weird dream he’s having.

“Hi, I’m April,” she offers him a hand.

Levi looks down at it, then back up at her smiling face, and finally shakes her hand. She’s energetic and enthusiastic, and despite the way she appeared out of nowhere and scared the hell out of him, there’s something about her that he immediately likes.

She has beautiful red hair and a look in her eye that says she doesn’t take anyone’s shit. Levi would probably think of her as a threat, but there’s a muscled arm firmly wrapped around his waist that reassures him.

“I’m Levi,” he answers her.

April nods down at Nico. “Who’s he? He looks very taken.”

Levi grins and gently brushes Nico’s hair off of his face. “He’s Nico and, um, I guess he is taken.”

“Lucky guy,” April winks. “Is anybody still free?”

She’s definitely here with a plan, then. Levi scratches the side of his head and hesitates before answering, not sure how much she knows about the limitations of this place.

“Do you know about the rules?” he asks her.

April sighs. “Unfortunately, yes. And I plan on following them, but I just want to know who’s available or not.”

Reassured, Levi thinks about it for a second, but he can only come up with one name. He points to the furthest bed from him, April following his gesture with her head.

“Vik is totally free,” he says.

“Why?”

She’s definitely smart. Levi chuckles and tilts his head from side to side, trying to find a nice way to say this.

“He was the last one to get in here before you, and he’s been very focused on trying to get everyone to break the rules,” he explains.

April hums. “And nobody wanted to break them?”

Levi looks away, trying not to look as guilty as he feels. “I mean, I’m sure somebody did break them already. Just not with Vik.”

“I’m sure,” April echoes him, then stands up and crosses her arms over her chest. “Well, then. I’m gonna get breakfast going.”

And with that, she walks out of the room and disappears just as suddenly as she’d appeared. Levi blinks at the spot she used to be standing in, then shrugs and lies back down.

Nico stirs, the arm still around Levi’s waist tightening.

“Who are you talking to?” he mumbles.

Levi smiles and turns to face him, moving so that he can prop his head on Nico’s pillow. They’re so close that Levi can brush the tips of their noses together just by nodding slightly.

“We have a new guest,” Levi whispers.

“We do?” Nico raises both eyebrows in surprise. “Who is it?”

“Her name’s April and I think I love her already.”

Nico flexes his fingers on Levi’s waist and uses his hold on it to bring him closer. Levi lifts a leg and hooks it over Nico’s hip, leaving their chests flush against each other and their faces barely a breath apart.

“Do I have something to worry about?” Nico asks.

Levi’s breath hitches ever so slightly. “Not on my part,” he shakes his head.

The smile Nico answers with is unsure, as if he doesn’t really believe it, but that’s not something Levi has the ability or time analyse right now. It’s gone just as soon as it had appeared, but Levi reminds himself to investigate it later.

“Good morning, by the way,” he changes the subject. “Did you have nightmares?”

Nico laughs under his breath. “No, not really. Surely it’s because you were there, though.”

“Weren’t you the one who was supposed to protect me?” Levi reminds him.

“I thought we’d decided on fighting together.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Silence falls between them, so Levi fits his head under Nico’s chin and lets his eyes fall shut for another couple of minutes. The others are starting to wake up as well, someone having already gotten up and come across April in the hallway.

Another day has started and none of them know what they’re going to get out of it, but Levi has finally managed to give into the mindset of just waiting and seeing. This strategy hasn’t failed him yet, so he decides on just waiting for whatever has to happen, to happen.

That’s mostly how he ends up sitting on the back of one of the outside couches with April in front of him, braiding her hair and listening to her talk about something he’s stopped paying attention to a while ago.

“Nobody is even keeping score, and I’m sure everyone’s broken a rule or two at this point. I think you should do the same with Nico,” she ends her sentence.

Levi finishes wrapping a small hair tie at the end of a braid, then starts sectioning the rest of the hair. April bends her head back and looks up at him expectantly.

“What?” Levi asks.

“You haven’t listened to a word I said, have you?”

“Of course I did. It’s really enlightening,” Levi tries.

April doesn’t even indulge him. She just sighs and points towards the pool. “You should go tease the hell out of that man.”

“Why?” Levi frowns.

“Because you can, and because there’s nothing he can do about it,” she shrugs.

“That’s so evil.”

“I know,” April smirks over her shoulder.

Levi considers it. Now that he thinks of it, there haven’t been any kind of consequences for breaking the rules so far. Maybe it will all be added up at the end, but it’s kind of unnerving, not knowing where everybody stands.

As far as they’re concerned, they’re either all innocent or all guilty, and nobody is confessing. Apart from Levi, but that was under extraordinary conditions.

He looks up at the pool, taking in the sight of Jackson and Nico swimming laps while Jo sunbathes on a towel on the side and the others are all scattered throughout the garden, and he suddenly gets where April is coming from.

The whole scene seems way too quiet and relaxed, and Levi feels the urge to create a little bit of chaos. Just because. April is probably a really bad influence on him.

Last braid done, Levi ties it up and then stands up, walks over April and goes towards the pool. He doesn’t turn around to look at her, too focused on the fact that this is the first time he’s let someone peer pressure him into doing something, and they didn’t even have to try that hard.

Whatever, there’s a first time for everything.

“Hello,” he calls out when he gets close enough.

Nico stops in the middle of the pool and swims over, propping his arms on the side and looking up at Levi. “Hi. Missed me?”

“Something like that,” Levi shrugs as he sits down next to Nico.

He kicks his legs and splashes some water at Nico before he reaches him and grabs the stone on each side of Levi’s hips with his hands. He’s dripping all over Levi’s legs, and he smells overwhelmingly of chlorine, but he’s cute enough to ignore the rest.

“Your hair looks sexy pushed back,” Levi says.

Nico’s eyes almost disappear behind his smile. “Are you quoting Mean Girls at me?”

“Absolutely,” Levi nods with the most serious expression he can manage. “Wait, you’ve seen Mean Girls?”

“Yeah,” Nico shrugs. “More than once, even.”

Levi wraps his hands around Nico’s neck, lightly pulling on his wet hair. “I don’t know what to do with this information.”

“What, the fact that I watch mainstream movies?” Nico asks.

“That, and the fact that you recognized the line with no context and in no time.”

Nico slides his arms over Levi’s hips and stands up straight in the pool. He doesn’t quite come up to Levi’s height because they’re in the deep end, so they’re still left looking at each other in inverted positions compared to the usual ones.

Levi doesn’t mind it. He hitches his hips closer to the ledge and loosely wraps his legs around Nico’s back, so that they’re basically hugging on the side of the pool. It’s ridiculous how nice it feels.

“You’d make a really nice Regina George,” Levi comments.

“That doesn’t feel like a compliment,” Nico tilts his head to one side.

“I didn’t say I meant for it to be one,” Levi shrugs.

Nico pretends to be outraged. “Did you come over here just to insult me?”

Levi bends down to prop his forehead against Nico’s. Somewhere around them, Jackson is still swimming around, but nobody is paying attention to them.

“Of course, that’s why I’m here,” Levi smiles.

“I don’t think it’s working out really well for you. I don’t feel very insulted.”

“Eh. I guess I’ll have to try harder, then.”

They’re no longer making sense, but neither of them cares. They’re just holding each other on the side of a pool in a resort on the beach, so everything else feels not as important at the moment.

“This would be a really nice moment for the watch to turn green,” Nico whispers.

Levi lightly scratches Nico’s shoulders with his nails. “It would.”

A shiver runs through Nico and he tightens his hold on Levi’s waist. Levi is basically sitting in the water at this point, only held up by Nico’s body pushing him up against the wall. He’s not going to dwell for too long on the details, because they’re very much still in public, and it probably wouldn’t be appropriate.

They’re both thinking it, but Levi is the one who says it. “It won’t turn on.”

Nico grabs Levi’s hips and slowly pulls him down as Levi holds onto his shoulders with his fingers digging into the muscles. He slides down Nico’s front until his feet hit the bottom of the pool, gasping at how cold the water is.

“Still not green,” Nico murmurs.

“Never been less green,” Levi hums.

He’s still pressed against the wall, Nico towering over him and surrounding him with his arms. Nico’s hair drips onto his shoulders, the water then sliding down his chest and onto Levi’s.

“We’re probably not creating a good enough connection,” Nico considers.

“It’s probably the wrong kind of connection,” Levi tilts his head to the side as he pushes his hips forward.

Nico bites his lower lip to keep from making noise, but Levi is pressed so tightly to his chest that he feels it anyway. He has a split second in which he wants to just forget about the rules, drag Nico into the bedroom and lock the door behind them, but he stops himself.

He doesn’t know why or how, but he does. They just keep staring and clutching at each other, and it’s physically painful to stay still.

Levi thinks that if it were anybody else telling him this he would slap them, but the tugging in his belly is something he’s never felt before, so he tells himself he’s allowed to be as dramatic as he wants.

“I don’t know, I feel pretty connected,” Levi shrugs.

He leans in and drops a kiss on Nico’s chin, then pulls away when Nico follows him for more. Nico groans but Levi just chuckles, patting his back and sliding out of his hold.

“And then you have the audacity of calling me a Regina George,” Nico mumbles as he watches him swim away.

Levi blows him a kiss and dips underwater, revelling in the shock of the cold water on his face and the noise in his ears. His heart is beating faster than it should be and he’s more frustrated than he has ever been, but he also hasn’t been this excited in what feels like years.

Excited to get up each morning and face the day, excited to make friends, excited to have someone else be as excited as he is to spend time with him. He’s so happy that he doesn’t know what to do with it, and well, if that isn’t the most wonderful thing.

“Not so fast!”

Nico follows Levi and grabs him around the waist, pulling him out of the water to throw him on his own shoulder.

“Put me down!” Levi shrieks, banging his fists against Nico’s back.

All he gets as an answer is a laugh and a firm slap on his ass. He gets submerged by water again before he can react in any way, but it’s okay, because their little show seems to have woken most of the people who had been napping.

The first to jump into the pool is April, followed by Carina and then Dahlia, who manages to convince Jackson to stop trying to swim and let her climb on his shoulders, initiating a pool fight that ends with everybody with water up their nose and no real winners.

Nico lets Levi sit on his shoulders as he fights Dahlia, holds onto Nico’s hair for dear life with his free hand and laughs so much that both his stomach and his cheeks hurt when they call a truce and crawl out of the pool.

-

Playing in the water under the sun is a more strenuous activity than any of them apparently realised, because it’s only a matter of minutes before they all fall asleep on their chairs or towels.

Levi doesn’t really sleep, just lies down with an arm covering his face and listens to the familiar sound of the now eleven other people breathing around him. It’s something else he never would have imagined would pass through his mind, but it’s relaxing.

He feels like he’s been here for years rather than just a few days, and sharing the space with all of these people has been way easier than expected, and he’s still not entirely sure that this isn’t just a huge fever dream.

Nico’s breath hitting his neck from where he’s curled into him on the chair says that it’s possibly more than a dream. Levi moves his arm from his own face to wrap it around Nico’s shoulders and pull him in even closer, breathing in the warm afternoon air.

He must fall asleep at some point, because when he wakes up again the sun is lower in the sky and he can hear people talking excitedly to one another.

“What’s going on?” he groans as he sits up.

“Hey,” Nico smiles at him. “We’re setting the place up.”

“For what?”

Nico nods towards a pile of boxes sitting in the middle of the patio. “We got those and a letter.”

“What’s it for?”

“A party!”

Levi looks at Nico, then focuses on what the others are doing. Jo is sitting on Link’s shoulders and she’s sticking lights to the ceiling, Casey is setting glasses on a table, and Carina is pouring snacks into different bowls.

“Uh,” Levi says eloquently. “Looks nice. Do we get some mu-“

He doesn’t get to end the sentence, because the sound of a microphone feedback makes them all wince and cover their ears.

“Oh god, karaoke as well?” he asks.

Nico laughs and shrugs, but his eyes are sparkling in a way that means he’s excited about something.

“You look happy,” Levi comments. “And sleepy.”

He rubs a thumb on Nico’s cheekbone, where the skin is golden and warm, and Nico leans into it before turning his head and dropping a kiss on Levi’s palm.

“Your hair is so cute when it’s messy,” Nico smiles, reaching up to ruffle it.

Levi grabs Nico’s hand to push him away, but doesn’t let go. Jo starts yelling at Link when he stumbles and she almost falls, and Levi chuckles as he watches them argue. Nico squeezes his hand to get his attention back after a while, so Levi turns back to him.

“What?”

“We also got this,” Nico grabs something from the floor and presents it to Levi.

It’s a huge tub of body glitter. Levi looks down at it, expressionless, until he gets it.

“This is what you’re smiling like that about?” he laughs.

“Can I put it on you?” Nico basically begs.

He pouts and bats his eyelashes and Levi lets him suffer for a bit, not because there is any need, but because he kind of enjoys the view. As if he’d need convincing for Nico to put his hands all over him.

“Paint me like one of your French girls,” Levi sighs as he falls back against the chair.

Nico laughs. “What’s with all the movie quotes?”

“They give a dramatic touch to every situation,” Levi shrugs.

They don’t really both fit on the chair, but they don’t let it discourage them. Nico shuffles until he’s sitting at the bottom of the chair, Levi’s legs wrapped around his waist.

Levi’s heart skips a beat when he looks down the length of his own body and finds Nico between his legs, but he can easily get over that. Absolutely. Totally not bothered.

“Do I have free rein?” Nico makes sure.

“Do what you want with me,” Levi nods, crossing his arms behind his head.

He hears Nico mumble something under his breath, but he chooses to ignore him. In fact, he even closes his eyes and takes a deep breath as he listens to the sound of the tub being opened and the silence that follows. It’s probably Nico trying to decide on his strategy.

When the first touch actually comes, Levi jumps. The glitter is in some kind of gel and it’s cold, and the fact that Nico chooses to start by circling Levi’s bellybutton doesn’t help.

“Oof,” Levi breathes.

“Cold?” Nico sounds like he was perfectly aware.

“A bit.”

Nico’s answer comes in the form of another swipe of gel down the middle of Levi’s chest, but it isn’t as cold this time; he must have warmed it up between his fingers.

“Better,” Levi mumbles.

They keep at it for a good while, as Nico insists on drawing actual figures and apparently that takes time. He spends forever drawing a heart around Levi’s left nipple because Levi keeps twitching and trying to move away from the ticklish touch, but eventually he moves on.

“Alright, I’m going to do your face now, okay?”

Levi nods and waits for him to do something dumb like drop of fistful of gel on his head or something like that, but all he gets is a single finger gently running above his eyebrow. The next swipe is on the cheekbone under the opposite eye, tracing it back and forth a few times.

Nico leaves a few dots above and under both lines, then seems to deem his work complete.

“Done?” Levi asks.

“Yeah,” Nico answers, but he sounds like his mind is somewhere else.

Levi starts opening his eyes, but he feels something touch his lips. He almost short-circuits thinking that Nico is kissing him right now, like this, in front of everybody, but soon enough he realizes that he’s just pressing a thumb into Levi’s lower lip.

Not that it’s any better, but still.

“All done,” Nico repeats.

This time, Levi actually opens his eyes. He looks down at himself and admires the different drawings on his torso; the heart on his pec, the circle around his bellybutton, the star on his right hip.

“Appendicitis?” Nico asks, pointing to the scar.

“Yeah, I had it a couple of years ago,” Levi shrugs. “It’s fine now.”

“Of course, you’re a fighter,” Nico smiles.

He closes the tub and passes it to Levi, then sits straight up and stretches his back side to side.

“Want me to do you?” Levi asks.

“Yup. Do your worst.”

Levi would love to be able to say that he’s as patient and meticulous as Nico was, but it would be a total lie. He sticks his whole hand inside the tub, then pulls it out and presses it against Nico’s left pec. He takes a second to look at how small his hand looks, but doesn’t indulge in it for too long.

Yeah, fuck. Levi shakes his head to clear his thoughts, then dips his finger back into the tub and starts drawing a line that starts from the print of his hand and goes along his collarbone, down his chest and follows the dips of his abs.

Nico’s breath hitches, but he’s better than Levi at resisting the urge to fight the tickle, so he stays perfectly still as Levi works.

“There. I’m an artist.”

“Nice,” Nico comments as he observes the final result.

They both look ridiculous, like two overgrown toddlers who got left alone in the arts and crafts room for too long, but from the look on their faces anyone could tell how much they absolutely don’t care.

“We should probably go help out,” Levi points out.

Nico looks around and scrunches his face. “Nah. They can take it.”

Levi laughs and lies back down on the chair, leaving enough space for Nico to settle down next to him. They almost don’t fit, but then Nico wraps his arm around Levi’s shoulders so that he can cuddle in, and it gets more comfortable.

“Do you like parties?” Levi asks.

“I like the atmosphere,” Nico shrugs. “Do you?”

“It’s not really my favourite scene, but I have a feeling I’ll like tonight.”

“I’ll try my best to make that happen.”

Levi smiles up at him, then finally relaxes and listens to the sound of the party preparations he is pointedly not taking any part in. Of course, it doesn’t last long, because Jo notices them and most importantly the glitter, and she demands that Link puts it on her.

Soon enough they’ve all forgotten about decorations and setting the tables up in favour of painting their bodies, mostly as an excuse to touch each other, but they’re all willing to ignore it for each other’s sake.

The sun goes down and the lights get turned on, colours bouncing off the glitter and making the designs on their bodies sparkle. Somebody turns the music on, and that’s when the night officially sets off.

“Do you want something to drink?” Nico asks, lips right up against Levi’s ear to be heard.

Levi nods and lets him climb off the chair, while he sits up and turns around to look at what the others are up to. He doesn’t really get the chance to spy on the others, because he immediately gets a lapful of Casey.

“Hey beautiful,” he greets him. “Why are you here on your own?”

“I was just about to come join the rest of you.”

“Liar,” Casey accuses. “I could it in your eyes.”

“What?” Levi frowns.

“That you’re planning on staying here the whole night.”

Levi doesn’t deny it, because it’s technically not untrue.

“Not the whole night,” he concedes. “I would have taken a walk around the garden at some point.”

Casey rolls his eyes, but pats his shoulder reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, I’m not judging. I’m escaping.”

“From what?”

“From that,” Casey nods his head towards the entrance to the backyard.

Levi follows his gaze and has to stifle his laugh so he doesn’t get heard. Isaac is standing in the middle of the makeshift dancefloor, shirt pulled up around his head and face already red, either from dancing or from drinking. Nobody is dancing with him, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

“He’s awesome,” Casey grins.

“Aw. That’s cute.”

“Shut up,” Casey shoves him.

“You like him so much,” Levi singsongs.

“Who are you to talk?” Casey turns an icy stare towards him.

Levi feels his cheeks get warm, but he smirks at Casey and shrugs his shoulders in a way that is supposed to show exactly how little he’s bothered.

“We got lucky,” is what he settles for.

Casey smiles with a sparkle in his eyes, then gets up when Nico comes back with two glasses full of something colourful and cold.

“Hiya boys,” Nico greets them, passing Levi his drink. “How are we doing?”

“We were just chatting,” Casey grins.

“Fun,” Nico smiles. “Do you want me to get you a drink as well?”

Casey looks impressed, but he shakes his head and points to the now fuller dance floor.

“Come dance with us,” he tells them.

Levi immediately puts his hands up in defence. “You go, I’ll watch.”

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Nico even sits down next to him to prove his point.

A very uncomfortable feeling wraps itself around Levi’s stomach. He looks at both Nico and Casey and he can see how much they obviously want to go enjoy the party, and he’s holding them back.

At the same time, though, Levi knows he won’t like being in the middle of so many sweaty people just moving their bodies around awkwardly, and he doesn’t want to put himself in that position voluntarily. He has to pick between his own discomfort and theirs, and he definitely doesn’t like it.

“I don’t really do parties,” Levi tries. “I’ll be fine here.”

Casey rolls his eyes and Nico looks at him with an expression that verges on worried. Levi hates it so much that he forces himself to go against what he wants and stands up.

“Alright, you win, let’s go dance,” he gives in.

Nico nods and smiles even though he doesn’t look that convinced, but still puts his arms on Casey and Levi’s shoulders and leads them away to where the others are standing.

Levi downs half of his drink at once and gives himself a mental pep talk. Then he drinks some more. With enough alcohol in his body he can probably do anything.

The music changes from background noise to something more upbeat that has everyone tapping their feet on the floor and nodding their heads to the rhythm. Levi looks around and feels as if he’s standing outside his body, observing the whole scene from afar. He’s so out of his depth.

Nico puts his hands on Levi’s hips from behind, gently squeezing them, and leans down to press his lips to Levi’s ear.

“You okay?” he asks.

Levi is glad for how considerate he is, but it doesn’t necessarily make the whole situation better. Still, he nods and forces himself to smile up at Nico, showing him his almost empty glass.

“I’ll get you another,” Nico immediately says. “Did you like the pineapple or do you want a different one?”

“Pineapple was fine,” Levi nods.

Nico leaves and even though he’s just a few steps away, Levi feels awkward standing by himself while everyone else is either grinding up against one another or jumping around and singing to the music.

He’s perfectly aware of how dumb or unreasonable he sounds. It’s not something he can control, though, and he would very much prefer just letting go and enjoying himself, but that’s not something he knows how to do. He feels like he doesn’t belong here, and there’s nothing he can do to change it.

Maybe drink more. That could potentially help.

“There you go,” Nico comes back with his new drink.

Levi thanks him with a smile and sips some of it.

Nico looks radiant, and like he only has eyes for Levi, since he hasn’t stopped staring at him all day. Levi feels even worse for not being able to give him the night he’s probably expecting and deserves.

He wants to try, though, at least.

“Let’s dance,” he decides, stepping into Nico’s space.

“I feel like I must warn you that I can’t dance for shit,” Nico says.

Levi laughs. He wraps the hand that isn’t holding the glass around Nico’s neck and starts swaying to the music exaggeratedly, but turning it into some kind of joke helps. The alcohol quickly working its magic also doesn’t hurt.

So they dance. Or, they move around somewhat in sync and following the music, but once Levi’s mind is clouded enough it gets hard to tell. Nico is not that far behind him, limbs seemingly moving on their own volition, but he never stops smiling.

He looks like he’s having the time of his life. Levi can’t wait for this whole thing to end.

Someone picks a song that’s heavier in bass and suits grinding more than it does randomly bouncing around. Levi immediately picks up the cue and slides his knee between Nico’s, pushing his thigh up.

Nico grabs the back of his neck and steps closer, moving around and against Levi’s leg. They’re not the only ones just going at it, most of the couples standing close to each other and dancing that way.

“Glitter really suits you,” Nico says, voice barely carrying over the music.

“Yeah, I was thinking of a look change,” Levi jokes.

“I don’t know,” Nico looks him over. “I like your usual look better.”

Levi wants to shoot back something about how Nico is not the one who has to like his look, but he lets it go. Instead, he bats his eyelashes and tilts his head to the side. He opens his mouth to talk, but Nico beats him to it.

“Actually, I think I like all the looks equally,” Nico decides.

That makes Levi smile. He pats Nico’s chest, glitter flying off, then focuses on his wrist. He blinks at it a couple of times before his mind catches up with what he’s seeing.

“Oh, shit, it’s green.”

Nico looks down as well, and it also takes him a while to react. When it does, it’s with a huge smile.

“Do you want to?” he asks.

Levi still isn’t over the way he never fails to make sure that they’re on the same wavelength, but right now is probably not the time to get emotional about it.

“Yeah,” Levi nods. “But not here.”

He grabs Nico’ hand and leads him away from the dance floor, back towards the bedroom. He’s pretty sure he hears somebody whistle at them as they walk by, but he just lifts a generic middle finger and hopes whoever it’s directed to sees it.

Nico kicks the door shut behind them and lets Levi lead him to the bed and push him down onto it. Levi climbs onto his lap, sits down on Nico’s hips, then leans up and kisses him, no holding back.

A surprised noise comes out of Nico’s throat, but it quickly turns into a quiet moan. He puts one hand on Levi’s back and the other on his hip, squeezing in time with the turns of their heads as they kiss.

They don’t speak or stop at all, just going at it until they must break apart to take a full breath in.

“Fucking he-“

Levi doesn’t let him finish, choking him off by moving back and biting the side of his neck. Nico’s hands stray under the belt of Levi’s shorts, gently and very quickly squeezing his ass before going even further and settling on the side of Levi’s knees.

The lack of oxygen quickly adds up to the alcohol running through Levi, so there comes a point where he’s forced to actually let up. He doesn’t feel like rolling off yet, though, so he sits back just enough for their lips to still brush against each other.

“It turned off.”

“What?”

“The watch. It, um, turned off.”

Levi looks at his wrist. The green light is, indeed, no longer there.

“Oh. Okay,” he breathes, falling on the bed next to Nico.

They lie there, catching their breath, until they air settles back down. The music can still be heard through the closed door, but it’s dark and relatively quiet in here.

“Are we gonna fall asleep like this?” Levi asks quietly.

All he gets as an answer is Nico snuffling and turning on his side to hug the pillow to his chest. Levi watches him with a small smile on his face for a bit, then feels that tragically familiar pang in his chest, and decides to give into sleep as well.

He can worry about all that stuff in the morning.


	9. Day 9

The morning comes, inevitable as mornings tend to be, and the feeling Levi had desperately hoped would be gone is still there, pressing down on his stomach like a weight he can’t move.

He’s lying on his back, arms thrown up over his head and head turned towards the window. It’s raining outside, must have started after they fell asleep, and there’s a cold breeze coming in, so Levi pulls the blanket up to his chin and cuddles into it.

Nico is still asleep, and it’s probably for the better. Levi slowly turns his head to look at him, hoping that he’s going to have some kind of revelation and everything will magically be okay, but he’s only disappointed.

Levi doesn’t hate what he sees; Nico’s hair is wild on his head and his lips are slightly parted, cheeks rosy even though it’s anything but hot in the room, and he looks like a literal dream.

That’s exactly the problem. Levi sees all of this, all the possibilities and chances available to him, and he can’t possibly believe it. There is this voice inside his head telling him it won’t last, that he doesn’t know how to make the best of it, so he should probably just give up while he’s in time.

He doesn’t want to, because he likes it, likes the attention, likes Nico himself, but it’s inevitably going to get ruined.

They’d already gotten proof last night, how incompatible they are. Levi doesn’t like things that most people consider to be the biggest amount of fun they can have, and in turn he enjoys activities that make most people turn their noses up, and he still hasn’t met anyone who doesn’t think he’s boring and annoying.

Even Taryn makes sure he’s always reminded of how weird he is for not wanting to go clubbing and preferring a movie or a simple night in instead. Levi is aware that it’s not that rare or strange at all, but he still feels it when he’s the one who ruins everyone’s plans.

Just like what had almost happened last night. Nico and Casey wanted to do whatever normal people usually do to have fun, and Levi hated every second of it. Not because of what they were doing, but because he was holding them down.

That’s the part that makes him feel like just disappearing. He hates when he’s the reason someone has to go ‘we don’t have to’ when they obviously really want to, and he hates that the only way to fix a situation like that is to do something he doesn’t want to do.

It’s inevitably going to happen with Nico as well. He’s only interested in Levi because there’s the excitement of not being able to have sex and all that stuff, but as soon as they are given the green light it will lose any novelty. Granted that he will still want to after what Levi is going to do.

They are too different and Levi refuses to change himself in order to appease others, so it’s not going to work. Nico probably has every good intention in the world, but Levi knows that it wouldn’t work, so he’s going to take the fall and spare both of them.

Nico frowns in his sleep and Levi’s heart clenches. He really wishes things could be different.

He sneaks out of bed as quietly as he can, walks down the hallway towards the bathroom to wash off the glitter still clinging to his body. He watches it swirl down the drain around his feet, thinking that it’s probably a metaphor for something.

Once he gets out and dries himself up, he grabs some clothes to put on. On a second thought, he takes a sweater he sees peeking out of his bags and slides it over his shoulders. The sleeves hang so far past his hands that he has to roll them up.

There are pastries on the kitchen table when Levi walks in. He doesn’t even question how this place works anymore or who has access to the building they can’t leave, just grabs two chocolate croissants and a bottle of juice from the fridge and steps outside.

His usual chair is right at the edge of the covered part of the patio, so Levi walks over to it, pulls it back so that water doesn’t splash on him and sits down on it.

He breathes in the damp air and watches the surface of the pool water get hit by the raindrops as he munches on his croissant. It’s easy to not do anything out here, when the noise of the rain is loud enough to cover his thoughts, and it’s a welcome distraction.

The weather seemed to somehow know to mirror his mood, thunder roaring in the distance and the rain falling harder than before. Levi brings his shoulders up to his ears and rubs the outside of his arms to warm himself up, but doesn’t even think about going back inside.

He spends a good while out here, eating his croissants and drinking his juice while staring out at the blurry horizon. Nobody comes out to bother him, probably because they haven’t woken up or because they don’t feel like sitting outside in the rain. Either way, Levi gets to enjoy the quiet for a bit.

When it finally happens, Levi is expecting it, as he has for days now. The door clicks as it gets opened, and the familiar sound of feet shuffling on the ground comes closer, then stops just behind him.

“Hey.”

Levi clenches his eyes shut and takes a deep breath. There it goes.

“Morning,” he smiles as best as he can.

“Again with the sneaking out of bed, huh?” Nico chuckles.

“The rain woke me up,” Levi shrugs.

“Yeah, it was unexpected.”

Nico stands next to Levi’s chair, visibly waiting for him to move so they can sit down together, but Levi just pretends to fix his clothes and wills him to take the hint. Nico does, of course, because he’s smarter than Levi gives him credit for, and pulls up a nearby chair to sit down on.

“Something bothering you?” Nico asks him.

Levi sighs and brings his knees up, resting his chin on them and looking at the pool again.

“Last night was fun, wasn’t it?” Nico tries.

It’s probably the worst thing he could say. Levi rolls his shoulders back and tightens his arms around his legs, trying to figure out how to do this.

He doesn’t want to sound like an asshole, but he doesn’t think there is a way to talk about this that could be understood by someone who’s never felt it. It’s probably a battle that’s already lost, but he owes it to himself to try.

And maybe he even owes it to Nico to do his best to explain, since he’s been nothing but great so far.

“Nico,” he starts, but he immediately gets interrupted.

“Before you say anything, just know that I get it.”

Levi frowns. “Get what?”

“What you’re feeling right now. I get it.”

He looks dead serious, like he’d somehow known this was coming. Levi still isn’t convinced, though.

“I doubt it,” he mumbles.

“That’s fair,” Nico concedes. “But hear me out for a second.”

It’s only going to make this longer than it needs to be, but Levi can’t really stop him, so he turns his head to the side and looks at Nico, waiting for him to continue.

“We’ve been here for a while, and it’s totally normal if you’re starting to have doubts or second guess all of this.”

Levi retreats even further into himself. “Is it? Are you having doubts?”

“Well, no. But-“

“So it’s not totally normal,” Levi interrupts him.

Nico presses his lips together in a frustrated expression. “I just don’t want you to feel, I don’t know, pressured.”

“I don’t feel pressured.”

“What do you feel, then?”

Levi stops for a second, thinking about it. There still is seemingly no way to say out loud what it is that’s taking his breath away. Nico is obviously trying, but Levi is still convinced he could never even begin to understand.

“I don’t know,” he finally sighs, then frowns. “How do you even know that something is wrong?”

Nico smiles, a gentle one. “You look so sad.”

If there hadn’t already been a lump in Levi’s throat, there definitely is one now. He takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly, but it’s still shaky. Nico looks away, and neither of them speaks for a while.

Levi just wants to go home. Hide in his safe place and avoid having to worry about this kind of stuff. It would all be so much easier.

“I wish I’d never agreed to coming here,” Levi whispers.

He’s kind of hoping Nico doesn’t hear it. He does, of course.

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.”

“Why?”

“Because I never would have gotten a taste for something that could never be,” Levi answers, mostly cryptic even to himself.

“It could be. It _can_ be.”

“Were you not there last night?” Levi snaps.

“Yeah. What was wrong with last night?”

“Everything was wrong with last night.”

Nico sighs. “I can’t help if you don’t try to explain.”

Levi looks up at him, biting the inside of his cheek. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“Try.”

“Weren’t you the one who didn’t know how to do communication and stuff?” Levi reminds him.

“I’m trying to better myself.”

Levi hums, then finally lets go of his knees and lies back on the chair, arms crossed over his stomach.

“I feel so dumb,” he says, shaking his head to himself. “But I feel, like, all wrong.”

“Was it something I did?” Nico finally asks, obviously having been waiting to.

“Yes and no.”

Nico just raises both eyebrows. Levi sighs. He’s going to be out of breath by the time this conversation ends, however that might be.

“We’re so different. We’re the kind of people who wouldn’t even talk to each other in the real world.”

“This is the real world,” Nico points out.

“Is it, though? Would you have gone for me if we’d been anywhere else?”

“Yeah,” Nico answers without hesitation. “I told you, you’re exactly my type.”

That absolutely does not make Levi feel better. “I don’t want it to be just about that. It might work in that sense, but it could never be a real relationship.”

He’s said more than wanted to, and he bites his lower lip as he waits for Nico’s reaction. Which comes in the shape of a frustrated rearranging of limbs.

“Levi, I…” Nico starts, then stops himself with a shake of his head. “Neither of us knows what is going to happen. But that can be applied to literally anything. It doesn’t make sense to worry about it.”

“It might not make sense, but I do,” Levi shrugs. “And I can’t just ignore it.”

“Ignore what?”

“I can only see it going bad. I don’t know how it would ever work.”

“We’ve been doing great so far, haven’t we?” Nico tries.

“Yeah,” Levi has to admit. “But…”

“But nothing. If you don’t think you can do it, put it on me. I think you can do it.”

Levi has to laugh. “Did any of this really make sense to you?”

Nico tilts his head side to side. “No. But it make sense to you.”

The lump in Levi’s throat gets so big all of a sudden that he has to clear it and stretch his back out.

“I feel even dumber now,” he admits.

“Don’t,” Nico shakes his head. “I told you, it’s normal.”

“Did you feel like this too?” Levi rolls his eyes.

It’s meant to be a joke, but Nico looks at him right in the eyes and nods.

“Absolutely,” he answers.

He doesn’t add anything, and Levi guesses that he doesn’t own him any more than that, just like Levi doesn’t have to explain himself any further. So that leaves them sitting out in the garden, under the pouring rain, heavy with a conversation that probably needed to happen.

“Are we good?” Nico asks with a small voice.

“I guess,” Levi shrugs.

“Give me a real answer.”

“I don’t have a real answer.”

“Yes, you do,” Nico kicks his leg out and makes contact with Levi’s foot. “Do you want to keep it up? No overthinking, just… do you want to do this with me? Only yes or no.”

Levi looks at him and feels the answer get kicked out of him. “Yes.”

“Then let’s try.”

It’s not that easy and Levi still doesn’t know how to explain it, but the fact that Nico didn’t just turn around and run away means something. Levi nods with a small smile and extends a hand over the space between them.

Nico grabs it and squeezes his fingers. Levi suddenly remembers the watches on their wrists, and feels disappointed for just a second that it didn’t light up, thinking that it might have meant that they aren’t as connected as they should.

Then again, that’s not what they need right now. Levi isn’t sure he would be up for a kiss or anything like that; he feels okay holding Nico’s hand and taking a deep breath, the fear pressing against his ribs from the inside still there but less overwhelming.

The difference from literally any other time this same feeling has hit him is that he’s not alone. Levi brings their joined hands to rest on his chest, covers them with his other hand and looks back out at the pool.

The rain has started letting up, and the sky is getting clearer by the second. This storm at least has passed.

-

Slowly but surely, the garden fills up like it usually does, although nobody jumps into the pool because it’s kind of gross after the rain, and the grass is still uncomfortably wet.

“We do have the whole beach as well,” April points out.

They all look out at the water, but it’s a dark, angry colour that doesn’t really make it that inviting.

“Only if we want to be swallowed by the sea demons,” Vik shakes his head.

April slaps him up the back of the head and they start bickering, but Levi immediately tunes them out. He pulls the sleeves of his sweater down past his fingers and rearranges his limbs on the chair so he can avoid his back starting to hurt.

“That looks familiar.”

Levi turns towards the source of the voice, and finds Nico looking at him with a fond expression.

“What?” he asks, confused as to what he’s talking about.

“The sweater,” Nico explains. “It’s mine.”

Realization hits Levi all of a sudden. He looks down at what he’s wearing and finds that it is, in fact, the sweater Nico had offered him the very first night on the beach.

“It was in my bag,” Levi tries to defend himself.

“I know. I put it there.”

Levi frowns, more than confused. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to see you in it, but you never would have worn it if I’d just given it to you.”

There’s an equal amount of outrage and some kind of emotional arousal that immediately hits Levi, because Nico had figured him out right from the beginning and he hadn’t even noticed. Levi feels a wall he thought was indestructible crumble to pieces inside of him.

“That’s so sneaky,” is all Levi can manage to comment.

“It’s true, though, isn’t it?” Nico grins.

Levi stares at him in disbelief, heart beating so fast he feels like he can’t quite catch his breath. All he wants to do is climb onto Nico’s chair and hug him until they just melt into each other, but instead he jumps up and walks away.

His knees complain about this much movement after being static for so long, but Levi is on a mission. He finds Taryn with a rag in her hand, dusting a table off, and he grabs her by the arm to lead her away before she can even think about resisting.

“Hey stranger!” she greets him happily. “Long time no see.”

“We’ve both been busy,” Levi quickly shoots back as he finds a quiet corner for them to talk.

Taryn laughs and lets him take her into the bedroom, closing the door behind them. She smiles until she notices the look on Levi’s face, then lifts an eyebrow.

“What could possibly ever be wrong?” she asks him.

“I need you to slap me and tell me I can do it,” Levi answers.

Taryn looks as unimpressed as she’s ever been, but Levi needs that, it grounds him.

“What do you think you can’t do?”

“All of this,” Levi sighs, looking around.

“It seemed like you were doing it pretty well.”

Levi shakes his head. “I was, but then…”

“Then you started overthinking it,” she finishes his sentence for him.

He just nods. Taryn puts her hands on Levi’s shoulders and looks him straight in the eyes.

“Did you already talk to him?” she asks.

“Yeah.”

“What did he say?”

Levi huffs. This isn’t going like he was planning, but he still has faith.

“That I can do it,” he sums up. “But he doesn’t really know me the way you do.”

“That’s true,” Taryn concedes. “But it’s something if he says the same thing I do.”

“You haven’t said it yet.”

He quickly realizes that she’s not going to. She’s entertaining his meltdown, but he won’t get what he wants from her.

“Remember that I’m the one who brought you here,” she reminds him.

“Right, so you’re the one to blame,” Levi rolls his eyes.

Taryn goes to punch him in the arm, but he dodges her just in time.

“Don’t waste all my hard work,” she continues.

“ _Your_ hard work?” Levi raises both eyebrows, incredulous. “What did you even do?”

“Uh, apart from convincing you in the first place?”

Levi crosses his arms over his chest and taps one foot on the ground, pointedly ignoring her. Taryn mirrors his stance, and they’re left staring at each other in the empty room, both of them silent.

“What do I do now?” Levi asks after a while, voice small and insecure.

“Trust your instinct,” Taryn shrugs.

“My instinct tells me to run away and hide.”

“No, that’s your fear.”

The lump in Levi’s throat comes back stronger than ever, or maybe it had never gone away. He breathes past it, looks Taryn in the eye and wills himself to borrow some of her belief in him.

“I owe you,” he finally decides.

Levi steps forward, drops a loud kiss on her cheek, then leaves her there in favour of running back outside.

“Fuck yeah you do!” she yells after him.

He smiles to himself as he reaches the door, heart beating fast and with renewed strength. He lets himself feel all of it, the excitement and the confidence, because for once it feels good to be proven wrong.

Still, he doesn’t really want everyone to think he’s completely insane, so he has to stop and compose himself before walking back out onto the garden.

Everything is still as he left it – which isn’t that surprising, since he’d been gone for barely five minutes –, including Nico, who turns around when he hears the door opening, looking as confused as Levi has ever seen him.

“What happened?” he asks as he watches Levi approach.

“Nothing.”

Levi walks over to him, but instead of sitting down on his own chair, he nudges Nico’s shoulder until he takes the hint and makes space for him.

“Nothing?” Nico echoes. “You have a habit of just running off like that?”

“Yeah, you’ll come to find it charming,” Levi answers without missing a beat.

Nico smiles like he’s just been told the best news. Levi realizes the implications of his words, and he’s grateful that Nico doesn’t seem to want to question how it makes sense with everything that happened earlier in the day. He just puts his arm around Levi’s shoulder and kisses the side of his head.

Levi relaxes against him and promises that voice still questioning everything inside his brain that it’s okay. Even if it’s scary, even if it steals the air directly from his lungs, it’s okay.

-

Since the patio furniture is still arranged for the party of the previous night, it’s easy to use the same layout, add chairs in a circle around the bonfire and spread out on them.

The rain starts back up early in the afternoon, and it’s a full storm, complete with lightning and thunder booming right over them, but they insist on sitting outside. Link volunteers for scouring the whole building for blankets and pillows, leaving the rest of them to settle down.

The weather puts all of them in some kind of mood. They’re aware that their time here is almost over, and there is surely a great amount of uncertainty going around. It was easy to indulge in the atmosphere of freedom – well, kind of –, but the end is near and they all know it.

They have to go back to real life and that means a lot of different things for a lot of them, and it shows in the way they’re all uncharacteristically quiet.

Levi feels like he still has some pieces to put in their place, but sharing Nico’s space and letting him be the one stable part of this whole thing comes easily. Easier than he thought, anyway.

“What should we do?” Jo wonders out loud.

“Are there any board games hidden somewhere?” Nico asks.

That makes Levi smile. He gently nudges his shoulder against Nico’s side, receiving a squeeze back as a sign of acknowledgement.

“I don’t think so,” Casey answers. “I went through a few of the cabinets the first day. All empty.”

They go quiet, trying to come up for something they can all do outside, but before any of them can even try, Link slams the door open, startling everyone.

“The resort gods have listened to our prayers!”

He walks outside with a huge box in his hands, blankets piled on top of it. He drops them in the middle of the circle, then immediately sets to looking through the contents of the box.

While everyone else is distracted with shouting at Link to tell them what he found, Levi quickly grabs the biggest blanket he sees and fluffs it out over Nico and his legs.

“This, my friends, is a projector,” Link reveals, kicking the box away. “We get a movie night!”

A pleased hum goes around the group. The wall is painted white, so it makes a perfect place to use the projector on, and they still have loads of unopened snack bags from the previous night.

Levi doesn’t even notice how hard he’s smiling until Nico gently presses a finger against his cheek.

“You excited?” he quietly asks.

“Yeah,” Levi shrugs. “This is more, um, my idea of a fun night.”

“Great, me too.”

“Really?” Levi lifts an eyebrow.

“Really,” Nico confirms, then smiles at Levi’s expression. “What?”

Levi debates admitting it, but eventually gives in. “Yeah. You don’t look like you enjoy staying in and watching a movie.”

He’s totally prepared for the chance that Nico might get offended by that, but he doesn’t. He just shrugs and pulls the blanket up to his chest.

“I’m full of surprises,” he winks.

“That you are,” Levi murmurs.

Nico smiles and gently knocks their heads together, as Link yells in satisfaction that he’s managed to set everything up. He turns the projector on and points it towards the wall, then messes with the DVD player until it all connects.

“What kind of movie is it?” Levi asks.

“It’s a bunch of horror movies!” Link answers, visibly excited. “We’re set for the whole night.”

Levi groans and fixes the blanket so that he can use it to cover his face when needed. Nico moves one leg and lays it on top of Levi’s, and it’s grounding. Levi feels safe and comfortable, and even if the anxiety still hasn’t left the middle of his chest, he’s never been more convinced that it’s going to be okay.


	10. Day 10

They apparently fall asleep like that, curled up around each other with the movie still playing. They are not the only ones, because after Levi opens one eye and gets used to the complete dark he sees other shapes sprawled out on the chairs around them.

He tries to sit up but finds that he can’t, Nico’s arm heavy over his chest. Levi waits for that ugly, gross feeling to come over him, but it never does. It’s all just warmth and lingering sleep.

Before his mind makes something up that could potentially ruin it, Levi grabs Nico’s forearm, drops a kiss on the underside of his wrist and turns on his side, nuzzling the outside of Nico’s shoulder.

“Buh?” Nico asks eloquently.

“It’s okay,” Levi whispers, rubbing a soothing hand on his chest. “Go back to sleep.”

Nico nods and rearranges himself so he’s lying on his front, hands crossed under his head. He blinks at Levi, then smiles like he’s pleasantly surprised to find him there.

“Are you comfortable?” he asks.

His voice is rough and so low that Levi feels a twang low in his belly. Not the moment.

“Of course,” Levi nods. “Sleep now.”

“Yeah, sleep,” Nico nods as his eyelids grow heavier and heavier.

Levi watches him fall back asleep, even though it feels kind of creepy. Nobody notices and Nico himself doesn’t seem to care, so Levi keeps his eyes open until he can’t anymore, then rubs his face into the soft chair and lets sleep come over him.

-

“Wake up, sleepyheads!”

The ground shakes and Levi wakes up with a gasp, grabbing the nearest thing to him, which turns out to be Nico, who in turn gets startled and rolls himself right onto the floor.

“What the fuck?” Nico complains, trying to sit up and failing miserably.

“Workshop!” Vik yells, then just turns on his heels and leaves.

Levi watches him go with a frown and a growing desire to drown him. Or maybe torture him until he begs for forgiveness. Either one would be great.

“If looks could kill…”

With a roll of his eyes, Levi turns around and looks down at Nico, still on the floor.

“A guy can dream,” he sighs.

Nico chuckles and heaves himself up, sitting next to Levi on the chair and rubbing his hands over his face. He looks well rested, but a wince passes over his face as he stretches out his back, and Levi realizes that they definitely should not have slept here.

“Did you hurt your back?” he asks, worried.

“Nah, it’s just a bit sore,” Nico reassures him. “I’ll be fine.”

Levi doesn’t believe him, but there’s not much he can do about it. So, instead of insisting, he recalls Vik’s words and tries to make sense of them.

“What do you think the workshop is going to be?” Levi wonders out loud.

Nico stands up, blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a cape, and shrugs.

“I don’t know. I’m kind of hoping it’s more bondage stuff.”

Levi immediately blushes a fiery red, but he tries to hide it by grabbing a pillow from the chair next to theirs and throwing it at Nico. His strength is limited by the fact that he’s just woken up so Nico manages to dodge the hit, but it’s the thought that counts.

“That would be incredibly mean,” Levi complains. “It was bad enough the first time, I don’t even want to think about what it would cause right now.”

Nico laughs and helps Levi up, then falls into step with him as they walk back inside.

“Do you think everyone is actually following the rules?” Nico asks. “I mean _all_ of them.”

“Are you asking me if I think the others are masturbating or not?”

It’s Nico’s turn to look a little warmer in the face. He shrugs and starts speaking a few times before he finally settles on one full sentence.

“I guess I am asking that, yeah,” he decides.

Levi hums. “I hope so. I mean, I would feel really dumb if I was the only one not doing it.”

“You really haven’t? Like, at all?” Nico seems surprised.

“No?” Levi answers, but it sounds more like another question. “Why, have you?”

“No. I really wanted to, but no.”

“Cool,” Levi nods. “We’re, um, good.”

“So good,” Nico agrees.

They’ve reached the bathroom door, and they’re now awkwardly standing in front of it. Levi looks up at Nico and Nico looks down at him, and they only make it a couple of seconds before they both crack up and start laughing.

Levi spares a second to tell himself that the fluttering in his tummy isn’t bad. It’s excitement and he’s willing to enjoy it for as long as it lasts, without worrying about when it’ll end.

Or at least try. It’s not as easy as just saying it; the fear and anxiety will come back sooner or later, but he’ll deal with them when they do. One thing at a time, one day at a time.

“See you outside?” Nico suggests, bringing Levi out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, sure,” Levi nods.

They go their separate ways, quickly washing up and getting ready for the day. They’d apparently been the last ones to get up, or get woken up, because when they finally go outside, everyone else is already there.

“What are we doing, then?” Levi asks, walking around the corner of a couch and sitting down next to Casey.

“It’s written in that letter,” Isaac nods his head towards an envelope on the table in front of them. “We were waiting for everyone before opening it.”

On the back of the piece of paper it says “workshop”, which explains how they knew what it was about before opening it. Vik grabs it before anyone else can and tears one side up, grabbing the letter inside and quickly reading through it.

“It’s another self-led thing. Boring,” he says before April steals it from his hands.

“It’s not boring, it’s to make us reflect,” she rolls her eyes at him.

They’re acting like they can’t stand each other, but the way they’re sitting, with April on the couch and Vik on the floor between her legs, says otherwise. Levi smiles to himself and thinks that they look right with and for each other.

Actually, everyone does. Maybe for some of the couples it was the pressure that brought them together, but they all seem to have found their place in here. Levi tells himself that he’s allowed to think he has, as well.

It doesn’t have to be about just Nico; he’s pretty sure that he’s also found some good friends. If he focuses on it too much he’s going to start overthinking again, but he feels good. Great, even.

Levi is brought back to the current situation when Casey elbows him in the side to make him pay attention. Apparently this time he’s managed not to daydream through the whole explanation, at least.

“Okay, it is a little bit lame,” April admits.

“Why?” Jackson steps in. “Just read it out already.”

She makes a face at him and laughs, then clears her throat and finally lets them all know what they have to do this time.

“It says that it’s time to decide if we trust the people around us or not.”

Levi immediately starts sweating. That sounds like a horrible idea, full of oversharing and inevitable regret, and he doesn’t want to ruin everything with this stupid game. His heartrate picks up and he starts chewing on his lower lip as he waits for April to continue.

“We have to write a secret of ours on a piece of paper, fold it up, and mix them all together. Then each of us reads one out loud, but we never find out who it belongs to.”

Okay, that’s not that bad. Levi takes a breath, but it’s still shaky. There certainly is something else coming, because April hasn’t put down the paper yet.

“What does that have to do with trust?” Link asks.

April shrugs. “I guess it’s up to us to actually reveal which one was ours afterwards.”

And there it is. Choices, and trust, and revealing bad shit.

“Well, it’s not that bad,” Dahlia comments.

“It depends on what you write,” Jo points out.

Levi looks over at her, but she’s turned away, gaze focused on the ocean. She’s frowning and pulling on the skin between her thumb and forefinger, and thankfully Link notices, because he covers her hands with his own to comfort her.

They’re cute, Levi thinks as he dodges another one of Casey’s elbow jabs.

“Stop that, I’m not distracted,” he complains.

Casey just rolls his eyes at him like he doesn’t believe him for a second, then passes him a piece of paper and a pencil. Levi doesn’t even think about asking where they come from; he’s fully accepted the random nature of this place.

He wishes he had to think about it more than he actually does, but there’s only one thing that comes up when he thinks about something he’s keeping secret and would prefer other people didn’t know.

Actually, they’re all pretty quick at it. In a matter of a couple of minutes, the table in the middle of the group is covered in tiny, folded pieces of paper, holding everyone’s secrets. The small mountain of paper holds so much power.

“Alright, so, I’m just gonna…” April trails off as she bends forward to mix the notes up. “I guess I’ll go first?”

Nobody opposes to it, so she grabs one and reads it. Not a sound can be heard, everyone holding their breath as they wait.

“I am a cancer survivor,” she reads out, eyebrows rising slightly.

“Jesus Christ” Casey mumbles under his breath.

Levi breathes out slowly, realizing that he’s going to be fine. His stuff definitely doesn’t even come near that.

They’re all trying to pretend they aren’t, but everyone is sneaking glances to see if they can figure out whose it is. Nobody confesses, though, so they must move onto the next one.

“Alright, my turn,” Vik says loudly, leaning forward to take a piece of paper for himself. “I’m a war veteran. Kind of.”

Before the confusion can fully settle in, Jackson picks out a secret from the pile.

“I used to be homeless,” he reads.

There are no comments at this point. There’s a silent, mutual agreement that they’re all just going to get through this as fast as they can and deal with the consequences later.

They get past a couple that are definitely less tragic and dramatic than the first ones, and it gives Levi such whiplash that when he hears his own secret being read out he almost misses it.

“I still live with my mom and she doesn’t know I’m gay,” Taryn says.

Now, there are quite a few gay people in here, so there is no way for the others to know it’s about him. Taryn, though, she knows. Levi watches her raise her eyes from the paper and look at every single one of them, not a hint of emotion on her face.

She’s great at pretending she doesn’t know what’s happening, at least.

The fact that everybody is taking this seriously is admirable. It’s probably a mix of a little bit of respect and a lot of curiosity, but still.

“I haven’t told my parents I’m gay because they would be disappointed,” Isaac is the last in line.

Levi’s ears perk up as he remembers that part of his is supposed to be about trying to figure out who wrote what. It’s similar to his own secret, but there’s a whole different subtext to it, but he can still relate.

He dares looking around, but finds that everyone is doing the same thing. They’re all just staring suspiciously at each other.

“What now?” Jo breaks the silence. “We just go on about our lives with this… knowledge?”

“I guess,” April shrugs.

Not a muscle gets moved until Vik jumps up and claps his hands, startling everybody else. “Alright! Anyone wanna get in the pool?”

He barely manages to finish the sentence before Link charges at him and throws him directly into the water.

-

The atmosphere definitely changes after that whole exchange. Levi sits on his chair as usual, but the scene around him is different. It’s terribly hot outside, but nobody is swimming. Nobody is even sunbathing, actually, probably not in the mood.

Levi can kind of relate. Some of the stuff that came up was really rough, and not that it’s out in the open it has to be dealt with in some way or another.

Nico is nowhere to be seen, has been for a while. Levi keeps telling himself that they don’t have to be attached at the hip every second of the day, but then he figures that if there’s a time for that it’s right now, so he springs up and picks a direction to start looking for him.

It doesn’t take long to find Nico, both because there are only so many places he could be, and because he’s kind of predictable.

“Hiding away?”

Of course, he’s in the stretch of grass in the shade behind the building, lying on top of a big blanket with both arms crossed over his head.

Nico cracks one eye open and smiles when he realizes who it is, so Levi walks over to him, but doesn’t sit down, unsure whether his presence is wanted or not.

“Come down here,” Nico pats the grass by his side.

Levi sits down, but at the last second before lying down decides to turn the opposite direction, head by Nico’s feet and vice versa. He looks up at the sky and quietly gasps at how blue it is, making everything feel like it’s in a movie, and it’s one of those moments that people make prints of.

“I get why you come back here,” he tells Nico. “It’s like another universe.”

“Yeah, I love it,” Nico nods, wrapping one hand around Levi’s knee.

“So,” Levi starts, plucking a strand of grass and twirling it around his fingers. “About this morning. How do you feel?”

Nico hums. “It was… interesting. You never know what somebody is going through. Or, has gone through.”

Levi nods and bends his leg. Nico’s hand slides and settles on the top of his thigh, but it’s a sweet touch. Just a point of contact.

“Do you think you know which was whose?” Levi asks.

“Well, I know what mine is, and Link’s.”

That peaks Levi’s interest, but he doesn’t ask. Instead, he crosses his hands behind his head and looks down his body at Nico.

“Do you know what mine is?” he smirks.

Nico shrugs, still looking up at the sky. “Do you want me to know?”

Levi was expecting more of a direct answer, but he’s not displeased either. He thinks about it for a second, trying to decide if he wants to go the confessional way or the easy way.

In the end, he realizes that with the trend they’ve started between the two of them, it couldn’t go any other way.

“I mean, it’s nothing life changing,” he defends himself. “It’s not like the cancer stuff.”

Nico chuckles and pats Levi’s leg reassuringly. “It’s okay. That was Link’s, anyway.”

Levi’s eyebrows shoot up. “Really?”

“Yup. It’s a great story, but not mine to tell.”

“Huh. Is yours that… intense?” Levi dares.

Nico shakes his head, effectively rubbing his hair into the grass. “Compared to the others? Absolutely not.”

Levi feels strangely relieved. He would have been okay if it had been a heavy secret, he thinks, but it’s great that it isn’t.

“Mine either. I actually felt a bit dumb for choosing it,” he admits.

Nico tilts his head to make eye contact with him. “One isn’t less than the other.”

Levi appreciates the intention, but he still makes a face. “They kind of are, though. Living with my mom and having been homeless are two different things.”

It takes him a couple of seconds to realise that he’s revealed which one was his secret. He slowly looks down at Nico to see if he’s noticed and if he’s reacting, but all he gets is a squeeze of his leg.

“Yeah, as different as being afraid of coming out to your parents and having had cancer, but they’re both valid.”

Once again, for what feels like the hundredth time since he’s been here, Levi feels incredulous of the way Nico seems to know exactly what he’s thinking at any given time. They bounce off each other so well and so effortlessly that it doesn’t feel real.

The scared part inside of him tells him that it’s just sheer luck and that the other shoe still has to drop, but Levi chooses to not believe it. It’s that easy, and yet Levi feels like he has to catch his breath just from thinking that.

“You’re right,” Levi finally answers him. “Well, the only other mystery now is who came up to me on the very first day.”

Nico doesn’t answer for a few seconds, then does a double take. “Wait, you don’t know?”

“Uh, no?” Levi matches his tone. “It’s meant to be a secret, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but…” Nico shrugs. “Everybody knows.”

“Well, I don’t,” Levi snaps.

“Okay,” Nico concedes, putting his hands up in defence.

Levi regrets the tone he used immediately, and he wants to say something to fix it, but nothing comes out of his mouth. Nico comes to the save, though, as has become a habit of his.

“It was me, by the way,” he says.

“What?” Levi asks, but he understood him perfectly.

He’s not sure if that changes anything, but at the same time, it kind of does. Nico had picked him from the very first moment, while he was busy treating him like shit. Interesting, at the very least.

“I know you weren’t mine,” Nico continues. “But I also know you didn’t like me at first, so it’s okay.”

“It’s not that I didn’t like you. I just…” Levi tries to correct him, but eventually has to stop and think. “Alright, I didn’t. But that changed.”

Nico smiles and gently scratches the skin of Levi’s leg with his nails. Levi only debates it for a couple of seconds before he sits up and crawls on top of Nico’s hips.

“Did it, now,” Nico continues the conversation like nothing had happened.

“Yeah,” Levi wiggles around to make himself more comfortable. “I absolutely despise you now.”

Nico pulls the least believable pout Levi has ever seen as he walks his fingers up and down Levi’s legs, looking up at him from under his lashes.

“You don’t,” he argues.

“I totally do,” Levi insists.

A slight breeze picks up and ruffles their hair, and Levi wishes that there was a way to take a picture of this moment from the outside, and to keep the feeling safe and tucked away somewhere he can come back to later.

“Actually, it’s not like that stopped me before,” Nico points out.

Levi rolls his eyes, but he can’t actually disagree with him. It’s true that he’d stopped wondering who had stood up for him the very first day, but knowing that it was Nico all along changes something. Or maybe it changes absolutely nothing.

“We’re so boring,” Levi sighs, but he’s still smiling.

“Maybe,” Nico shrugs. “I’m enjoying myself anyway.”

“Yeah?” Levi can’t help himself. “There’s nothing missing?”

He’s slowly leaning down, only catching himself when the tips of their noses touch. He doesn’t pull back, though, just rubs them together slowly.

“Nope, as content as can be over here,” Nico answers.

Levi hums, but can only hold the façade for a few seconds before breaking into a huge smile.

“You know what?” he asks, patting Nico’s chest. “You’re right. I’m fully okay with being the best, most platonic friends there have ever been.”

He means it, he totally does, but when their watches suddenly make that sweet noise that sounds like victory and turn that bright green, he doesn’t think twice before catching Nico’s lips in a kiss.

Nico laughs into it, wrapping his arms around Levi’s back and hooking his knees around his hips. Levi lets himself fall to the side and Nico just goes with it, rolling so that they’re both on the grass, even more tangled than before.

They only break the kiss to catch their breath, but Nico immediately latches onto Levi’s neck instead. It’s not urgent and doesn’t plan on going anywhere, the kisses gentle as they travel along the underside of Levi’s jaw.

“This doesn’t change anything,” Nico makes sure to point out. “It’s just a, um, a plus.”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Levi nods. “Can totally go without.”

Nico hums in agreement, but still pushes down on Levi’s shoulder so that he can crawl between his legs and go back to kissing him.

“That just happened,” Levi gasps, trying to keep up the joke.

“Oops,” is all Nico contributes with.

Levi laughs and grabs Nico’s face with his hands, thumbs rubbing up and down his cheekbones as they move from one kiss to the other with wet smacking sounds.

They probably keep at it way past the watch turning off, but nobody could ever blame them. Actually, they only let each other go when they suddenly find themselves covered in freezing cold water.

“What the fucking hell!” Levi screams at the top of his lungs.

“Yeah, that should do it,” Link smiles serenely at them. “Dinner is ready, you horndogs.”

Nico sends him off with a string of swear words that eventually just turn into one promise of imminent revenge, and Levi has to laugh. It’s freeing and comes directly from his stomach, and not for the first but the definitive time, he’s so glad he agreed to coming here.

“Shall we go?” Nico asks as he looks down at Levi from where he’s propped up on his arm.

“Yeah, I want to see how everyone is dealing with all that stuff,” Levi nods excitedly.

He goes to stand up, but Nico pulls him down before he can go too far and drops a loud kiss on his lips.

“There, now we can go,” Nico decides.

Levi laughs and shakes his head, then accepts Nico’s offered hand and follows him back to the others.

-

It’s a different kind of night. Levi guesses that everyone is busy dealing with the consequences of those secrets coming out earlier in the day, because nobody is in the main area just hanging around like they usually would.

The night air is pleasant and the bedroom is occupied by someone arguing less than calmly, so Nico and Levi claim the side of the pool for themselves and lounge on the warm tiles.

“We spend a lot of time just lying on the ground, you and I,” Levi notices.

Nico snorts. “I feel like that says something about us.”

“Whatever it is, I like it.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

That kind of settles it, then. Levi still can’t fully believe it, something inside of him telling him to hold just something back so that he doesn’t lose everything when it eventually all goes bad. He wants it to stop, would do anything to be able to just throw himself into it, but he doesn’t work like that.

He thinks Nico gets it. They obviously haven’t seen the really dark side of each other yet, and maybe when they do it will be disastrous, or maybe it will be just fine. There’s no way to know, really.

Not that that makes him feel any better.

Levi shakes his head to bring himself out of what he knows will only end in a never ending loop of irrational thoughts. It doesn’t really work, so he goes the extra mile and rolls directly into the pool.

The noise of the water rushing against his ears is oddly calming, so Levi indulges in sitting underwater for just a couple of seconds before coming back up for air. Nico is watching him with only one eye open, eyebrows raised in a silent question.

“Come in,” Levi beckons him with a finger.

Nico makes a face like he’s thinking about it, then scoots over until he can dip just up to his forearms into the water. Levi swims in front of him, slides his fingers between Nico’s and uses him as an anchor so as not to float away.

He tries to use his weight to drag Nico into the pool just once, but all it gets him is Nico pulling him up by their connected hands and kissing him square on the mouth.

“How dare you!” Levi yells, splashing him with water until he begs for mercy.

“Literally nobody is even keeping track anymore,” Nico shrugs.

“I swear, if you cost us whatever the final prize is…” Levi threatens.

Nico doesn’t let him finish, choosing to propel himself forward and into the pool, taking Levi down with him. Levi kicks him away and comes back up to the surface.

He watches Nico move underwater and swim towards him, obviously going for his legs, but he doesn’t move away. Just let him crash into him, with everything that comes with it.


	11. Day 11

There’s a new envelope waiting for them the following morning. It contains a single key and a letter that literally only says “meet you on the yacht!”. They have to read it a couple of times before its meaning actually clicks.

“A yacht?!” Isaac squeals. “As in, an actual really fancy boat.”

Laughter breaks the quiet excitement, chatter eventually turning into gasps of amazement when they walk down to the beach and there is, indeed, a yacht waiting for them right there.

“Oh, today is going to be that kind of day, then,” Jo smiles appreciatively.

There’s a man who introduces himself as the skipper, takes the key and leads them onto the yacht.

It’s spacious in a way that means they can all spread out comfortably on the cool, smooth seats, and then they’re off. On a yacht, because apparently that’s what their life is like right now.

“I don’t know how to say this,” Nico sighs as he drops down next to Levi. “But you look so good like that.”

Levi chuckles. “Like what?”

“With the wind blowing in your hair, sitting in an expensive boat with champagne in your hand,” Nico lists.

It is true that Levi feels particularly comfortable like this, but it might have more to do with having ten days of relaxation behind him than the boat itself. It doesn’t hurt, of course.

“You know what?” Levi raises his glass. “Thank you.”

Nico taps his glass against Levi’s and sits back against the seat. “Now that’s some character evolution.”

Levi looks at him like he’s grown another head, but doesn’t question him further. There’s not much going through his mind other than sun, salt, skin.

They’re all quietly chatting amongst themselves, but the sound of the waves covers most of the conversations from the other people. Levi lets his head fall against the back of the seat and takes a deep breath.

“I think this is going to be what I miss the most when I’m back in constantly rainy Seattle,” he sighs.

“Seattle?” Nico asks.

He sounds surprised, and that’s when Levi realizes that they never actually talked about their life outside of this place. His anxiety level spikes up so suddenly that he gets a bit dizzy and has to tell himself to breathe before he launches into a panic attack.

Nico is there to put a reassuring hand on his knee, though, and it’s grounding enough that Levi finds it in himself to look up at him.

“Uh, yeah, I live in Seattle,” Levi confirms.

This is it, this is the moment Nico tells him he actually works full time in, like, Stockholm and that this whole thing is destined to end just like it began. Maybe it had been Levi’s own mistake for thinking in the first place that it would ever go anywhere, maybe-

“Cool, me too.”

“You too what?”

“I live in Seattle as well,” Nico shrugs.

Levi stares at him, waiting for what he just said to make sense. It doesn’t.

“No, you don’t,” Levi says.

“But I do.”

“Shut up.”

“You shut up!”

Levi slaps him on the shoulder. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s not meant to be funny!” Nico catches Levi’s still swatting hands.

“Yeah, so stop.”

Nico laughs and grabs both of Levi’s wrists in one hand, keeping his prodding fingers away from himself. Levi flushes a bit at how easy he made that look, but doesn’t give up his mission to make Nico stop taking the piss.

“I’m serious,” Nico insists.

Levi rolls his eyes. “You should know better than to joke ab-“

“Levi,” Nico interrupts him. “I live and work in Seattle.”

“You don’t,” Levi shakes his head. “You can’t.”

Nico is trying really hard to hide his laughter, but Levi has never been more serious in his entire life. It can’t be true that they live in the same city, because that would mean that there’s a chance. That they have a chance, if they want to take it.

It simply can’t be.

“Do you, like, not… not want to…” Nico mumbles. “Not want to?”

“I want to,” Levi immediately answers. “Yeah, no, I want to.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Nico frowns.

Levi opens his mouth to explain exactly what the problem is, but nothing comes out. He knows perfectly what he’s feeling, but there is no way to put it into words, so that leaves him with the only part he can actually say out loud: hope.

“I guess I didn’t know if we were actually doing it,” Levi tries.

It doesn’t explain anything, but Nico still seems to get it. He shrugs, slides one arm on the couch behind Levi’s back and looks down at him with a warm smile.

“I’m in if you are,” he says. “Inside this place and outside.”

Levi’s heart is going to give out sooner rather than later and it’s going to be Nico’s fault. Luckily, though, he’ll apparently be there to rush him to the hospital when it happens.

Because they both live and work in Seattle. Like, already. Nobody has to move and then regret it, because they both already live there, and they can keep seeing each other even after they’re free to leave this equally weird and amazing place.

“I’m so in,” Levi grins.

Nico lifts one hand in a silent request for a high five, to which Levi laughs and grants him one. They finally fully relax as the others are leaving their own bubbles to meet in the middle, ready to enjoy the day on this expensive yacht in the middle of the ocean.

Levi breathes out and feels another huge weight crumble off of his stomach.

-

It’s almost scary how fast Levi gets used to the atmosphere on the yacht. The skipper parks them in a seemingly random spot and tells them they can do whatever they want while he hangs out in his private space.

The yacht is big enough that they’re not all over each other, and are in fact able to sit and lounge comfortably without interfering with the others’ activities. Not that there’s much variety to said activities, but they make it work.

As soon as they stop Jackson and Link make up a diving tournament, starring just the two of them, while Jo, Carina and April sunbathe nearby. The rest of them hang out in the shade and shout out scores at them.

Levi sits between Nico’s legs, back against his chest, eyes mostly closed as he barely pays attention to whatever is going on. Behind him, Nico keeps yelling at Link to jump higher, do a spin, stuff like that.

He’s being really careful not to scream directly in Levi’s ears and he’s making up for how he is anyway by rubbing a thumb over Levi’s ribs with the arm he has wrapped around his chest. All in all, Levi can’t complain.

What he can do, instead, is mildly worry about the future. He could just relax and enjoy the moment, but where would the fun be in that? Granted that if there’s someone who has fun in being anxious, it’s definitely not him.

They’d even said it out loud, that they are both up for doing this together, but that kind of reassurance sadly only lasts so long. There are so many uncovered points still, and they keep screaming to come out and make Levi pay attention to them.

Sometimes they win. Sometimes Levi acknowledges that they’re there but immediately pushes them away. Sometimes he’s so into the moment that they, too, decide they can wait for a while to come out.

Today is a bit of a mix. Levi cuddles back against Nico and doesn’t feel the usual pang of anxiety in his guts, but he still can’t fully ignore everything.

For instance, are their work shifts going to be compatible? And what if they aren’t? What if they leave in complete opposite sides of Seattle? Would that be a problem?

What if they don’t like each other’s friends? What if in the middle of everyday life, the quirks that make the other attractive and interesting become annoying and unbearable? How long can the honeymoon phase they’re in right now last?

And most importantly of all: what if when they get to have sex they’re totally incompatible?

Not that everything revolves around sex, but the anticipation and expectations are being raised so much that Levi is getting stage fright just thinking about it.

And that’s why he should probably stop thinking about it. He grabs Nico’s arm and feels it press down against his chest as he takes deep breath after deep breath.

There’s nothing he can practically do about any of this. It all just has to happen, and it absolutely doesn’t make it easier in any way. All he can change is how he reacts to it, so…

“You thirsty?”

Levi suddenly remembers where he is and why. He registers that Nico has stopped shouting, so the question must have been directed at him. His brain quickly catches up with the rest of him, and he shakes his head.

“No, I’m fine,” he answers.

“You sure? You look like you could do with some water,” Nico insists.

“No, really, I’m okay.”

Nico hums. “I don’t know, I don’t buy it.”

Levi frowns and tilts his head back to look at Nico, and finds him smirking down at him like he’s got something planned. From the way he’s slowly moving his hands to grab Levi’s legs, it’s probably nothing good.

“Would it change anything if I begged?” Levi asks.

“Not likely,” Nico smiles.

“Alright,” Levi sighs. “Just don’t let it be said that I went willingly.”

Nico laughs and stands up, arms wrapped around Levi so efficiently that he lifts him like he weighs nothing. He takes a couple of steps towards the edge of the deck, accompanied by weak claps and calls of encouragement from the others.

“Why do you keep doing this to me?” Levi complains.

“Because it’s my job to keep you from spiralling,” Nico explains with a smile.

It hits Levi probably harder than it has any right to. Still, he scoffs.

“I’m not spiralling,” he rolls his eyes.

As an answer, Nico kisses his cheek and takes a couple a steps back, then starts running and jumps into the water, only letting go of Levi when they’re about to hit the water.

Levi comes up with a gasp, then settles into floating on his back. He hears Nico swimming around him, splashing more water than he necessarily has to, and he smiles up at the sky.

-

The skipper – he refuses to tell them his name, or even engage in conversations longer than a minute – prepares lunch for all of them, and the food is so good that they eat all of it and get so full they can’t do much more than just lie down.

The water is calm, the breeze is still pleasantly blowing and it isn’t that hot in the shade. It’s definitely the perfect day, and there aren’t a lot of things that could ruin it.

“I’m a grown-up, you can’t tell me what to do.”

Vik is one of those things, apparently. Levi opens one eye and looks over at where he’s sitting with his arms crossed over his chest, pouting at Jackson.

“If you want to drown and die, don’t let me stop you,” Jackson shrugs.

“I’m not gonna die!”

“Go prove me wrong, then.”

They keep arguing and eventually April tells them both to shut up, but Levi stops listening halfway through. He stretches all of his limbs out and rolls from his back to his belly, planning for all intents and purposes on taking what promises to be the best nap of his life.

“Comfortable?” Nico quietly asks from where he’s lying next to him.

“So comfortable,” Levi confirms.

Nico hums and starts gently caressing Levi’s back, drawing random designs with the tips of his fingers. Levi would start purring, if he could.

“Tell me if you want me to stop,” Nico whispers.

“Don’t you dare stop,” Levi threatens.

A quiet laugh comes from Nico’s direction, but he indeed doesn’t stop. Levi breathes heavily and lets himself be lulled into that sweet half-asleep state.

It’s a while before any of them realize that they’re slowly moving back towards the beach. They only really notice when the skipper claps his hands so loudly that everybody jumps.

“Alright, my friends, that was fun!” he smiles. “I’ve been told to let you know that you should go change into an all-white outfit.”

“Why?” Casey immediately questions him.

That was apparently the maximum amount of words the skipper has been allowed for today, because he just shrugs and turns around on his heels, leaving them all on the beach with confused expressions.

Eventually they shrug and head back inside, not knowing why but doing as they were told and lying down all the white clothes they own.

“I mean, it has to be some kind of themed party,” Jo guesses.

“Again? Ugh, I still haven’t recovered from the last one,” Jackson complains.

Levi sits down at the bottom of his bed and watches the others try to match clothes that definitely don’t go together. He doesn’t care for the most part, just a random pair of shorts and a shirt for him, which he’s already put on.

So it’s another party. Levi won’t lie and pretend that the idea doesn’t make his heartrate pick up a little bit, but there’s not much he can do about it except either drink himself until he can let go again, or have a terrible time.

Either choice doesn’t sound appealing at all.

“I like that on you,” Nico says as he drops down next to him.

Levi looks up at him, then follows the line of his gaze down to his own shirt, and he realizes that the shirt he’s wearing is not his. It did hang off of him a bit too much, but he hadn’t given it too much thought until Nico had pointed it out.

“Want it back?” he asks.

Nico shakes his head. “Nah, keep it. I’m wearing this.”

He pulls the material from his chest, but it doesn’t make that much of a difference, as it’s mostly sheer. He looks exceptionally good anyway.

“We all look like we died and went to what I imagine would be heaven,” Levi comments, causing laughter to erupt across the room.

Levi can see Nico looking at him out of the corner of his eye, but before he can even start thinking about something to say or do to hide his internal freakout, Nico bumps their shoulders together.

“Being on the yacht all day really tired me out,” Nico sighs. “I think I just want to lie back tonight.”

His intentions are the purest and well-meaning, but that immediately makes Levi feel bad. He doesn’t want him to sacrifice his night just because he feels like he should be by Levi’s side, but he also doesn’t want to have to spend the whole party in a corner by himself.

There’s something he’s trying to learn, though, which is to give people the benefit of the doubt.

“Yeah, throwing me in the water at all times must have been exhausting,” Levi rolls his eyes.

“Exactly! See, you get it,” Nico smiles.

Levi finally looks at him with an unimpressed expression, but finds Nico already waiting for his gaze with a wink. He looks like he’s perfectly aware of what he’s saying and how it sounds, and like he doesn’t regret it for a second.

Levi decides to trust him. “Alright, so lazy party it is.”

-

And a lazy party it is indeed. Not everyone lets the day in the sun stop them from drinking and dancing the night away, but Nico and Levi are not the only ones who decide to sit this one out.

Taryn and Carina also spend more time sitting down on the couches than they do actively partying, and Levi is pretty sure he sees Casey and Isaac sneak away halfway through the night. All in all, it seems that the gays collectively decided that tonight they had other plans.

Levi is not actually thinking about what the others are up to, though, too busy trying to find a way to get comfortable in Nico’s lap.

“The couch has more space.”

“There’s plenty here.”

“I can hear it cracking.”

“Shut up,” Levi snaps.

Nico just laughs at him, but lets him do as he pleases. They’re trying to both fit on one single armchair, and it’s normally barely big enough for one person, let alone for two, but Levi has faith.

“Slide a little lower,” Levi instructs.

“Like this?” Nico asks as he plants both feet on the floor and moves his hips to the edge.

“Yeah, and I’m just going to…” Levi trails off, trying to get one knee to fit in the small space.

Nico instinctively arches his back to make room, which means that Levi can slide his other knee in and finally sit down on Nico’s thighs.

“You can’t possibly be comfortable like that,” Nico chuckles.

“No, wait, just-“ Levi wiggles until something in the back of the chair gives, and he’s able to slide forward.

That means that their hips are flush against one another and their arms have nowhere to go other than around each other, but it’s so, so nice.

“See? It’s possible,” Levi grins.

Nico throws his hands up as a sign of defeat, but Levi just grabs them and guides them around his own waist. Nico takes the hint and hugs him tight to his chest, smiling happily up at him.

“You’re surprisingly soft,” Levi comments.

“Why is it surprising?” Nico pouts.

Levi prods Nico’s chest with his finger a couple of times. “Cause you’re, like, all strong and muscly.”

“I can be soft too,” Nico insists.

Fondness overcomes Levi, to the point where the only way he can answer that is by bumping their foreheads together and taking a shaky breath.

“I like you soft,” he murmurs, so quiet only the two of them hear it.

Nico smiles and goes to say something, but he gets interrupted by the music suddenly getting louder. The song is in a different language But Nico seems to now all the words to it, and he starts singing it as Levi gives him a confused smile.

It sounds really nice, though, so he just tilts his head side to side in time with the music and listens to Nico serenading him in a foreign tongue. It’s not the worst time he could be having.

“Do you only know the song or do you speak whatever that was?” Levi asks at the end.

“I’ll answer your question if you answer mine,” Nico grins.

It means that he wants to ask something he thinks Levi won’t want to answer, but it’s a smart strategy, Levi will give him that.

“Deal,” he decides.

“Do you want to go on a real date when we get back?”

Levi doesn’t think it could be possible for his stomach to be more fluttery than it is right now. He bites his lower lip and looks down at where his fingers are messing with the neck of Nico’s shirt.

“It depends,” Levi shrugs. “What do you have in mind?”

Nico slides his hands down Levi’s back, stopping at the waist, and Levi can feel that the tips of his fingers overlap over his spine. He’d noticed how big his hands are, but actually feeling it is a whole different story.

“I know it sounds boring, but I can cook dinner and we can watch a movie or something,” Nico explains.

Levi wants to weep. “It doesn’t sound boring,” he assures him.

“Not even after spending so much time in this place?”

“It’s different, but not boring. I like dinner and a movie.”

“Dinner cooked by me,” Nico points out.

“That’s a sure way to get to my heart.”

He hadn’t meant to say that and it probably shows on his face, but thankfully Nico doesn’t bring any attention to it, although the way he squeezes his hands shows that he’s definitely heard it.

For probably the first time, the fact that there’s no way this could last isn’t the first thing to pop up in Levi’s mind, and it’s… refreshing.

“Alright then, it’s a date,” Levi pats Nico’s chest. “Literally.”

Nico beams at him and tilts his chin up like he’s asking for a kiss, and Levi is _so_ tempted to just give in. He leans forward and brushes the tips of their noses together in what has become a familiar gesture, and Nico runs his nails up and down Levi’s back slowly.

“Can’t wait,” Nico murmurs.

They’re talking about the future, making plans for it, and Levi is not dreading it. He slides his fingers into the hair at he back of Nico’s head and doesn’t think about when the last time he’ll get to do that will be. He’s pretty sure that Nico will let him play with his hair for a good while after today.

“Me neither,” he answers.

Somebody drops a bottle behind them, sending glass shards everywhere, but Nico and Levi barely notice.


	12. Day 12

The first thing Levi notices when he wakes up is that he’s gotten restless. His heart is beating too fast for this time of the morning and lying down becomes immediately unbearable.

He sits up and squints against the faint light coming in from the window, then rubs his eyes with his fists. Nico is still sleeping soundly, but Levi needs to get up and get out, like, right now.

He throws on the first thing he finds and steps outside, finally able to take a full breath. He does a mental check-up of what he’s actually feeling, looking for the usual tightness in his chest and stomach, but doesn’t find it.

In its place, instead, there’s excitement, mixed with impatience and hope. He wants to go home but not in the way he’s used to; he wants to go home because he knows that what is waiting for him there isn’t what he left behind.

And that’s definitely more than what he expected when he first set foot in this place.

He’s still jittery, though, so he decides to strip down to his swimming trunks and dive into the pool. The water is so cold that it’s a shock to his system, but taking laps in it works in using up all his pent-up energy, and he also gets to not think about anything other than the water rushing past his ears.

Levi doesn’t know how long he stays in the water, but when he finally swims up to the side of the pool at the shallow end, the sun is higher in the sky and he can hear the sound of people walking around inside.

He crosses his arms over the edge of the pool and rests his chin on them while he catches his breath, closing his eyes and focusing on the ever so present sound of nature in the background. This, he’ll absolutely miss when he goes home.

Which, yes, home. The place he’s gonna come back to in just a couple of days. The space he shares with his mom, sure, but the space he’s maybe, hopefully, if-everything-goes-well going to get to share with Nico as well.

“What are you doing, you weirdo?”

Levi’s eyes snap up to meet Taryn’s exasperated face. He sighs and pushes himself back into the water, dipping below the surface for a few seconds and combing his hands through his wet hair. As expected, she’s still there when he comes back up.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Levi smiles up at her. “What’s up?”

“You,” Taryn raises an eyebrow. “At the crack of dawn. Again. Can’t you just sleep?”

Levi shrugs and splashes some water at her feet. She must realize that he’s not in a bad mood, quite the opposite actually, so she relaxes her stance and smiles back at him.

“I get it,” she admits.

“Yeah?” he grins. “Jump in with me, then.”

Taryn hesitates for just a second before motioning at him to move out of the way and diving into the water with a practiced movement. Levi laughs and starts swimming around her, dodging her attempts at pushing him under.

“You owe me so much,” she mumbles when she gets a good hold on him.

“I did the work, you just brought me here,” Levi points out.

She splashes him directly in the face and then starts chasing him, and they’re making so much noise that Link pops his head past the door to check what’s going on, his expression lighting up when he sees them basically wrestling each other.

“Another water fight!” he yells as he runs at full speed towards the pool.

He makes such a big splash that everything around them immediately gets covered in water. The others follow the noise and soon enough they’re all gathered outside, some eating and some just lying around.

It’s probably a stretch, but ah, the good old times. All talks of secrets and bad history is gone, leaving them to enjoy some of the last times they get to spend like this.

Nico sits down on the edge of the pool with his legs in the water, kicking his feet back and forth until Levi swims over to him and wraps his hands around Nico’s calves.

“Morning, beautiful,” Levi grins up at him.

“Hiya. You sneaked out of bed again.”

It’s more of a statement rather than a question, so Levi doesn’t try to think of something to answer. Instead, he walks his hands up Nico’s thighs and tugs on the bottom of his swimming trunks, blinking away the water falling from his hair into his eyes.

“You’re pretty,” Nico smiles.

Levi can feel how warm his cheeks get, but he plays it off by pinching Nico in as many places as he can, until he starts laughing and swatting his hands away. He also grabs Levi’s hands and traps them between his knees, for good measure.

“Seriously, though, did something happen?” Nico insists.

“What, you weren’t serious when calling me pretty?” Levi pretends to be offended.

Nico scoffs, but still reaches down to brush the back of his fingers down Levi’s cheek. Levi leans into it for just a second, then quickly turns his head to the side and pretends to bite him. Or maybe doesn’t really pretend, but Nico still manages to move back fast enough for him to miss.

“Vicious beast,” Nico accuses him.

Levi smiles innocently and blinks his eyes until Nico gives in and smiles back. He can see he’s still waiting for at least some kind of explanation, so Levi tilts his head from side to side a couple of times and thinks about the best way to put this.

“I needed to burn some energy,” is what he comes up with. “No panic or anything like that.”

Nico nods like that answers more than just that, and maybe it does. All that matters is that he nods and he looks convinced, so Levi allows himself to feel just as confident.

“I’ll call you next time if you want,” Levi offers.

The reaction he gets is definitely not one he was anticipating. Nico clears his throat and tries as discreetly as he can to fix his trunks, but Levi notices, since he’s right there. Like, directly in front of him. At the perfect height.

“I do have some energy to burn as well,” Nico nods slowly.

Levi swallows and rests his chin on top of Nico’s knee, looking up at him through wet lashes.

“Soon,” he dares.

Nico licks his lips and looks like he’s about to say something, but at the last second seems to decide against it, rubbing his hands over his face and lying down on the ground in one smooth movement.

Levi can’t and definitely doesn’t miss the way his abs pop up as he goes down, but he thinks he’s allowed. Encouraged, even.

“I hate you,” Nico mumbles, but Levi still understands him.

He slaps the tops of Nico’s thighs hard enough that he sits back up to complain, but manages to push himself off the wall and further into the pool to avoid getting some kind of slapped back.

Levi likes this kind of teasing. It’s fun and it makes him feel wanted, so he plans on enjoying it for as long as he can. The mostly constantly playful atmosphere also helps in making everything light-hearted, what with Link trying to literally drown Vik for good.

“Get in,” Levi nods his head towards the pool.

Nico makes a face. “Nah.”

“You’re going to get dragged in whether you like it or not.”

“Is it a threat?”

“It’s a warning,” Levi shrugs.

Nico thinks about it for a second, then smirks. “Only if I get to be on your shoulders today.”

Levi wants to joke that it wouldn’t really work out, but Nico literally launches himself at him before he can even start a sentence. He tries to balance himself on Levi’s back and keep himself up by wrapping his legs around Levi’s waist, and he does manage it, even if just for a second.

Then gravity predictably does its thing, and he starts the short yet determining slide down Levi’s body and into the water. He almost takes Levi’s trunks with him, and it’s definitely not an accident.

“I’m sure that is somehow against the rules,” Levi accuses.

Nico laughs and swims in a full circle around him. “You’re the only one keeping count.”

“Yeah, well, somebody has to,” Levi rolls his eyes.

“If you say so,” Nico sing-songs.

Levi splashes him and dodges someone’s leg being thrown around, but doesn’t back down.

“I’m gonna win the prize and I’m gonna enjoy it all by myself,” he says, voice dreamy.

“I’m pretty sure there’s no actual prize,” Nico shrugs.

He stands up and towers over Levi, getting him to walk backwards until his back hits the wall of the pool and he can surround him with his arms. Levi looks at him with his chin tilted up, water dripping from the ends of his hair onto his shoulders.

“You’ll be begging me to share when I get awarded,” Levi continues.

Nico doesn’t answer him, too busy slowly stepping forward into Levi’s space. Levi lets him, leaning back with his arms over the edge of the pool and smiling serenely up at Nico.

“Careful,” he whispers.

“What are you talking ab-“

Two pairs of arms suddenly appear and grab Nico, pulling him back and lifting him up only to then throw him into the deep end. Levi watches his panicked expression as he gets dragged away and laughs a laugh that comes from the deepest part of his belly.

“I told you,” he shrugs.

Nico just makes loud, outraged noises before being completely submerged.

-

The rest of the day goes by in a similar fashion. Some of them stay by the pool, swimming and sunbathing, while others retreat to the shade to nap or chat in peace. Levi still feels like he can’t sit still, though, so he forces Nico to get up and play with him.

They go through a few games of volleyball, then switch to soccer, and finally settle on just throwing the ball around and catching it if and when they feel like it. They’re sweating like madmen, but at least they’re keeping busy.

At one point, Nico is too slow to turn around and the ball hits him directly in the face. He stumbles backwards, covering his nose with his hands and crying out loud in pain, and Levi feels his stomach drop to his feet.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” he gasps as he runs towards Nico and tries to get him to move his hands. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, It’s nothing,” Nico nods, but blood comes gushing out of his nose and through his fingers as soon as he does.

“Wait, I’ll go get you something,” Levi says as he scrambles away. “You just sit down for a second.”

He starts running before he even thinks about where he wants to go, ending up in the kitchen, standing in front of the fridge and staring at the closed door. He puts a hand on the door and only then realizes that it’s shaking, so he clenches it into a fist and mentally tells himself to stop freaking out.

His brain kick-starts itself after a few seconds, and he manages to hurry up and get some ice out of the freezer. There is a time for panic, but it’s not now.

After wrapping the ice in a kitchen towel, Levi trips his way back to Nico and collapses next to him, immediately reaching for his face to push the ice against his nose. Nico lets him do as he pleases, but he doesn’t look like he’s in that much pain anymore.

Still, Levi gently presses his fingers against the skin around Nico’s nose and tries his best to clean the blood from his top lip. Nico winces when Levi touches one spot, so he frowns and touches it some more.

“Ouch.”

“It doesn’t look broken,” Levi decides. “But you might want to keep the ice on it.”

He keeps checking and double-checking, but it’s still a very much not broken nose, no matter how long he stares at it. After a while he hears Nico laugh, his hands coming up to grab the sides of Levi’s face.

“You look like you’re assessing a trauma patient,” Nico comments.

Levi scoffs and presses the ice against Nico’s face much less carefully; now that he’s made sure that his throw didn’t break any bones, he’s less inclined to worrying and is actually leaning towards replaying the whole scene in his mind.

Suddenly, a laugh forces its way out of him.

“What are you laughing about?” Nico asks, trying to sound annoyed, but he can’t hide his smirk.

“You went for the ball face first,” Levi giggles.

“Is me getting hurt funny to you?” Nico lifts an eyebrow.

Levi just snorts and keeps laughing, sitting back on his heels and letting go of all the tension he’d managed to accumulate in the few minutes this whole thing had happened. Nico is already on the ground, but he also visibly relaxes, one hand still keeping the ice over his face.

“Face injury aside,” Nico starts, and Levi interrupts him with a scoff. “Those were some really good emergency skills.”

“Could have been better,” Levi shrugs.

He’s thinking about that shaky hand, that moment of hesitation, but he doesn’t say it out loud. Nico kicks one leg out to touch Levi’s hip, looking like he’s impressed more than anything.

“Still my saviour,” Nico swoons exaggeratedly.

Levi grins and properly looks around them. There’s more blood than one would think, on the grass, on Nico’s shirt and on Levi’s hands, but apart from that detail making the area look like a murder scene, it’s still as calm and peaceful as ever.

“I guess that’s a sign that we should never attempt that again,” Levi half jokes.

“Or maybe it’s a sign that we should keep trying until we get it right,” Nico shrugs.

“If you wanna keep getting hit in the face, that’s fine by me.”

Nico rolls his eyes and then slowly gets to his feet, only wobbling the tiniest bit. He gives a thumbs up to signal that everything’s fine, but Levi still walks closely behind him to catch him, were he to fall.

Realistically, he’d probably go down along with him, but it’s the thought that counts.

“I didn’t mind the way you took care of me,” Nico mumbles, so quiet that Levi barely hears him.

He does, though, and it makes him smile so big that he has to turn his head away for just a second.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he finally answers.

Nico smiles like that meant anything more than what it actually did, then nods his head towards the bathroom to signal that he’s going to wash up. Levi quickly steps inside to wash his hands, then leaves Nico to it.

He takes a deep breath as soon as he’s by himself, looking down at his feet to ground himself. It was nothing, really, but it felt like a lot. ‘My first time accidentally injuring you’ kind of a lot. He feels guilty and embarrassed at his own terrible aim, but at least Nico hadn’t seemed angry at all.

Still, Levi can’t shake that uncomfortable feeling.

When Nico steps back out to the garden he looks as normal as ever, if just a little red on his nose. Nobody notices anything because there isn’t anything to notice, but Levi knows.

He pats the side of his chair he’d left for Nico to unsuccessfully try and fit all of his body in the small space, motioning for him to lie with his head pillowed on Levi’s belly. It’s not the most comfortable of positions, but it’s a great angle for Levi to play with Nico’s hair, so it will have to do.

“You know,” Nico starts after a while. “I have the biggest couch at home. Like, it’s enormous. I can’t wait to do stuff like this there.”

Levi tightens his fingers in Nico’s hair to try and mask the way all of his body tenses up. It’s not out of nervousness, though, quite the opposite. It’s because he feels like a tornado suddenly started up in his stomach, and he needs an outlet to deal with it or he’ll explode for good.

Nico acts like he can’t feel it. “It’s soft yet firm.”

“It’s also really big, if I recall correctly.”

“You do. It is. Big and long.”

They last about three seconds before Nico cracks up and turns his face to nuzzle Levi’s belly, causing him to laugh even harder and try to push him away. Of course, it doesn’t work, because Nico has completely wrapped himself around Levi, but at least it’s an excuse to touch him.

Not that he needs an excuse, really, considering the way Nico sighs when Levi starts lightly massaging his shoulders. Levi smiles to himself and tips his head back, eyes closed and everything, totally enjoying the moment.

“I can’t wait either,” he admits.

Nico barely moves his head to drop a kiss above Levi’s bellybutton. Levi wants to go hide in a corner and cry, but it would mean breaking this moment, and that would be way worse.

“Link said we’re going to win,” Nico casually says.

“That’s literally an admission of guilt,” Levi points out.

“Yeah, I really think we’re the only ones who followed the rules,” Nico shrugs. “But it means he thinks we’re… good.”

Levi pointedly doesn’t think about the others hooking up everywhere while he goes crazy trying not to give into temptation and jump Nico. He doesn’t, because it wouldn’t give him the past two weeks back, and he’s frustrated enough as it is.

“Is Link some kind of expert?” he asks instead.

“I don’t know, but I appreciate and trust his input,” Nico nods solemnly.

“Alright,” Levi concedes. “If he says so, then.”

Nico hums, and that’s it for that. This kind of constant reassurance that they’re actually doing this, that they’re both of them on the same page should have gotten old already, but it just hasn’t.

Levi isn’t over being reminded that there’s someone who’s actually this interested in having a romantic relationship with him, and Nico doesn’t look like he minds reminding him, so he’ll take it whenever he can.

Just as Levi starts thinking that he wants to try and braid Nico’s hair, the doorbell rings. Everyone around them suddenly goes quiet and stares in the same direction, but nobody moves.

“What now?” Vik says.

“I don’t know, go find out,” April pushes him out of the chair they’re sharing.

Vik falls on his ass on the ground and immediately starts arguing with April, so they’re not going to be of any use. Levi rolls his eyes and pats Nico’s back, trying to get him to move so he can get up and quickly walk to the door and back.

He doesn’t wait for Nico to make space for him, just plops down on his lap and lets him wrap his arms around Levi’s waist, chin propped up on one shoulder. He takes his sweet time opening the envelope, everyone’s eyes trained on him.

“If it’s bad news, please don’t read it,” Taryn begs.

All Levi moves for a good minute is his eyes. Not a single word gets uttered by anyone around him. Levi keeps his face as straight as he can, even though his eyes keep trying to widen as he reads more and more.

He hears someone open their mouth, without a doubt to tell him to hurry up, but he beats them to it.

“You’ve been enjoying your time in the resort for twelve days,” he starts reading slowly. “Surely you all want it to last forever. Maybe without the current rules. If only that were possible… Well, guess what? It is possible! For one couple, at least.”

Levi stops to let the curious murmurs go around, then clears his throat and keeps going.

“The two people that broke the rules the least will be considered the winners. Although, none of you actually did what you were told. Shame on you.”

The murmurs turn into quiet laughs, but nobody denies it, or even looks one bit sorry about it.

There are two pieces of paper in Levi’s hands, and the second one must have the names of the winners written on it, because the last sentence on the one he’s currently reading ends with a big arrow telling him to turn the page.

“Compared to how much everybody else did what they wanted, these two people stayed strong and held on even when tempted with the most convenient situations, so they deserve to be awarded for it,” Levi continues.

He realizes that he has everybody hanging from every word coming out of his mouth, and it feels strangely nice to hold this much power. That is, until Nico squeezes his sides as a way to silently tell him to hurry up.

Levi makes a displeased noise at him, then sighs dramatically and goes back to reading the last few lines on the page.

“The prize is the chance for the couple to spend the remaining two days in the resort, completely by themselves, with no rules other than to enjoy each other’s company.”

That grants him a round of gasps. Nico squeezes him again, but this time it’s not out of impatience. Or maybe it is. Levi is too busy trying to find the courage to keep reading to think about it too much.

The thing is, it’s them. It has to be them. Levi has seen the others in compromising positions more times than he would have liked, and only he knows how much he’s been struggling to keep his hands to himself. Not even, off himself. Off everything. He’s gonna go crazy.

“C’mon, just do it,” Casey says impatiently.

Levi grabs the corner of the page, braces himself, then turns it all in one swift movement. He scans the words for a couple of seconds before he grins and lifts it to show Nico.

“The winners are Nico and Levi. Have fun,” he reads out loud.

Nico screams something in his ear and everyone else just groans and complains, but Levi can’t hear anything past the blood rushing in his ears and the butterflies fluttering away in his stomach.

They won. They get this whole place to themselves for two full days. There are no rules, they can do whatever they want.

Levi’s stomach falls down to his feet. They can do what they want. Which could be, like, anything.

Fuck.


	13. Day 13

The non-winners – Nico tried calling them losers but it didn’t go down well – are unceremoniously asked to leave that same night or first thing the following morning. Most of them pack up their few belongings and leave as soon as they can, not too bothered about not winning, while others stick around for the night.

It is true that the end of the restrictions on what they can do applies to everyone, whether they get to stay or they have to go. The only difference is that Nico and Levi can get it on by the poolside, on the beach, maybe on a boat…

And that’s most likely what’s throwing Levi for the biggest loop of his life as he stares at the water going down the shower drain between his feet. Or, he would be looking at the water if he didn’t have a raging hard on blocking his view.

Levi has been frowning down at his own dick for at least twenty minutes now, and he still hasn’t decided if he wants to touch it or not.

No, that’s not right. He does want to touch it, desperately even, but he can’t bring himself to do it.

Maybe it’s the fact that he’d run away from bed before Nico could wake up again, or maybe it’s the fact that he’d said goodbye to Taryn just a few minutes ago. In perfect Taryn fashion, she hadn’t said a single word, but she’d gotten her point across with just a pointed look.

Nico and he have the whole place to themselves. All the beds, all the chairs, all surfaces are available for them and only them.

That’s the problem. The two of them have never been alone with each other, not really, and the idea is making Levi so unexplainably anxious that he has to remind himself to take in deep breaths and not collapse to the floor.

His body seems to be on a different page, though. It’s like the previous twelve days are all catching up to him at once, and he’s feeling everything he either hasn’t had the time or hasn’t allowed himself to feel. Most of it has to do with how horny he is.

Levi is conflicted. Part of him wants nothing more than to wrap a hand around his own cock and jerk himself off until he physically can’t anymore, because he knows what he likes and is sure it would be satisfying enough after two weeks without a single touch.

The other part of him, though, it’s the one that is telling him to wait and let Nico have that first touch, for no reason other than he just wants him to put his hands all over him.

That leads to another small yet relevant part that’s telling him to run away as fast as he can, because there’s no way this is going to end well. How could it? They’d just spent two weeks teasing each other to death, the anticipation has built too much for anything to ever be up to it.

It can only be disappointing because, well, it had been a while even before coming here, and Levi is going to be clumsy and it won’t be hot or arousing at all for Nico. A disaster. It’s going to be a disaster.

Also, how can he be sure that Nico hasn’t or isn’t already enjoying himself in bed while he isn’t there?

The thought makes Levi’s whole body jolt like he’s just been shocked, his cock twitching so hard that it almost hits his lower belly. The mental image of Nico doing… anything to himself, really, sticks itself to the front of Levi’s mind and promises to haunt him for the rest of his days.

Or until he sees it in real life, anyway.

That doesn’t help. Levi decides to step out of the shower before he gets so lightheaded he trips and hurts himself, but he’s also still so hard that he has to waddle his way around the bathroom. He’s a complete mess and has no idea how to get out of it.

Brushing his teeth and splashing cold water on his face make his erection go down just enough for him to be able to put on clean clothes, at least.

The real problem comes after, though, because it’s true that if he wants he can keep thoughts at bay, but somewhere in this building there’s Nico, who’s very real and probably expecting something, an answer if nothing else.

Levi puts a hand on the door handle, takes a deep breath and finally turns it, letting himself out of the bathroom and immediately going for the chairs still by the pool. It’s eerily quiet, no voices coming from anywhere and none to be expected, because there are only two people around, and he’s one of them.

Sitting down in his usual spot is easy enough, but it immediately becomes impossible to just stay there and wait for things to happen. There’s a nervous energy humming just underneath his skin and his hands itch with the need to do something, anything.

He’s pretty sure Nico would like to make the most out of the time they have together, because it’s not like Levi has forgotten how he’s been acting since day one, but he’s having a really hard time – yes, pun intended – coming to terms with it.

Maybe it was easier when there were rules. Or maybe Levi is just nervous and being by himself with only his thoughts for company is making everything seem worse than it actually is.

The realization feels like coming up for air after being underwater for slightly too long. Levi sits up straight, bites his lower lip and only really thinks about for a second before standing up and turning around, keeping his head down as he sprints towards the door.

He doesn’t get very far, because he immediately crashes into Nico, who had been standing just a couple of steps behind the chairs.

“Holy fucking shit,” Levi gasps, stumbling back onto the chair. “Hi. You scared me.”

Nico chuckles. “Sorry. Morning.”

Levi quickly catches himself, doing his best to smile at Nico without letting any of his internal turmoil show. He tries to find a comfortable place for his hands to rest, but he feels awkward and uncomfortable, looking anywhere that isn’t Nico’s face.

Arms crossed over his chest, Nico lets him struggle for a few more seconds before having mercy on him.

“So,” he starts, nonchalantly taking a step forward. “We have the whole place to ourselves.”

“Looks like it,” Levi nods. “It’s so quiet.”

Nico hums, looking at all the empty chairs around them. It’s as awkward as it had been on the very first day, and Levi hates it. He wants to go back to feeling comfortable around each other, to being able to flirt and chat and all that stuff, but right now it feels so far away.

They’re the only people in here, and yet it feels like they’re standing in the middle of a crowd, so close but so far way. Levi doesn’t like it, not at all, so he goes against every single one of his instincts and decides to do something about it.

“We’re thinking the same thing, yeah?” he says.

Nico grins. “Probably not. What are you thinking about?”

Levi blushes. He can’t tell him what he’s thinking about. What he can do, instead, is try and get out of this uncomfortable stalling feeling.

“Okay, so, first things first: congrats on winning. We rock,” he raises a hand which Nico meets in a high five. “And then… I’m just gonna say it.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Just because we can now do stuff doesn’t mean that we must. Meaning that we don’t have to rush anything if we don’t feel like it.”

He tells himself that he has every right to establish boundaries and that Nico will deal with them even if he doesn’t like them, but it seems like they don’t have that particular problem, if the way Nico has never looked more pleased is anything to go by.

“Absolutely. We have all the time in the world,” Nico nods.

Levi squints at him. “So you’re fine with it if we don’t immediately jump each other?”

Nico shrugs. “I’m fine if we never jump each other.”

The sentiment is right, but it’s not believable in the slightest. Levi scoffs and tilts his head to one side, looking up at Nico with his best unimpressed expression.

“You would be okay having blue balls forever?” he asks.

Levi swears he sees the slightest amount of colour appear on Nico’s cheeks. It’s endearing. And infuriating, because him looking flushed like that makes Levi’s mind go to places it definitely shouldn’t go right now.

“I mean, I can always take matters into my own hands,” Nico explains.

A new wave of arousal makes Levi’s vision go blurry at the edges, coupled with an equal amount of anxiety caused by the fear that Nico had already taken care of himself while he chose to wait. He immediately feels dumb for it and wishes he could sneak away and just get it done with, but Nico interrupts his meltdown.

“I haven’t, if you’re wondering,” he says as if he’s talking about the weather.

Levi wants to melt and continue living his life as a blade of grass. He swallows noisily and nods, reminding himself why it wouldn’t be a good idea to rush into this. Because it isn’t, it wouldn’t, but fuck if it’s difficult to remember in moments like these.

“Uh, me neither,” Levi decides to share.

“Great,” Nico answers. “I mean, good. I mean… okay.”

He looks almost as flustered as Levi feels, and it’s the tiniest bit reassuring. It’s still them, nothing has changed and nothing has to change.

“If you go get some food I’ll let you sit here,” Levi changes the subject.

Nico looks grateful for that, catching on and playfully rolling his eyes.

“Such a generous soul,” he jokes.

Levi blinks exaggeratedly, fists tucked under his chin and everything. “Only good things come out of feeding me, usually.”

“I’ll take note of that,” Nico winks before walking away.

“Anything with chocolate!” Levi calls after him.

Nico doesn’t react, but Levi trusts that he heard and understood him. If not, he’ll just make him go back to get the right stuff, and he will, because he’s great like that.

And with that, Levi is left to himself again for a couple of minutes. This time, though, he’s not terrified about whatever might happen next.

They agree that they can take it slow if at all, which means that anything that might happen is going to be gradual, accommodating and comfortable. Levi is excited and anxious at the same time, but it’s okay.

It’s going to be one hell of a weekend.

-

Nico does come back with enough chocolate based snacks to satisfy Levi’s craving, so he’s allowed the right to sit next to him. They eat their breakfast with their shoulders touching, enjoying the still warm but not too hot sun in silence.

“Sweet breakfast kind of guy, then,” Nico comments. “I remember the pancakes.”

That feels like it happened months ago, not just a few days. Levi smiles at him because it’s such a nice memory, and because Nico has chocolate smudged all over his mouth.

“Yep, I’ve never liked savoury stuff first thing in the morning,” Levi shrugs. “You look like you smashed your face in the food, by the way.”

“Shit,” Nico rubs his face, making it even worse. “Did I get it?”

Levi shakes his head and throws a napkin at him, mentally going back to that first date on the beach when he decided to give Nico a chance, even though he tried to poison him with strawberries. They’ve come such a long way, and they’ve barely started at all.

“I’m still all sticky,” Nico complains. “I’m gonna take a dip.”

He gets up and immediately dives into the pool, splashing so much water that Levi gets wet. He groans and pretends to be way more annoyed than he actually is, but the truth is that the cold water feels nice and the view of Nico’s back as he swims isn’t bad either.

Slowly but surely, everything goes back to feeling just like it was before. The fact that they’re alone stops being an obstacle and instead becomes an opportunity to just be themselves around each other. Not having to worry about people throwing water at them definitely helps.

Maybe it’s the reassurance and the relaxation that Levi really needed, because something happens halfway through the afternoon, with the sun starting to think about setting and washing both of them in a golden light.

They’re still lying on their chairs, have only moved to swim a few laps in the pool and then come back, and they’ve been trying to solve the same crosswords for twenty minutes by now. It’s safe to say that they aren’t really trying anymore.

Nico is tapping his pencil on Levi’s knee absentmindedly, but it’s all Levi can focus on. He follows the line of the tendons in Nico’s wrist moving up his forearm, over his bicep and his shoulder, until he gets to Nico’s face and finds him to be already looking back, smiling knowingly.

“Can I help you?” he asks innocently.

Levi licks his lips and pointedly doesn’t answer. They just stare at each other, smiles slowly growing the longer neither of them speaks.

“Have I ever told you _you’re_ pretty?” Levi whispers.

Nico chuckles. “No, probably ‘cause I’m not.”

Levi gasps exaggeratedly, shuffling closer to the edge of the chair and reaching up to touch Nico’s cheekbone.

“You’re the prettiest, cutest, sweetest-“

“Stop it,” Nico laughs.

“I really like the colour of your eyes, your hair looks absolutely amazing, your hands are really big and I…” Levi trails off, fingers tracing the skin next to Nico’s lips.

He can literally feel the air between them crackling. It’s ridiculous but it’s true, Levi’s head filled only with thoughts of _I want I want I want_.

And it’s oh so sweet to realize that he, in fact, has it. Nico is right there, smiling and still playing with his pencil, crosswords long forgotten.

“Do you, like, by any chance, might possibly…” Nico starts.

“What?” Levi grins, making him spell it out.

Nico’s eyes flicker down to Levi’s lips. “Want to make out?”

Levi bursts out laughing. He wraps one hand around Nico’s neck and pushes himself up so he can sit on Nico’s legs. The chair groans under their suddenly joined weight, but they’re too busy grabbing each other’s clothes to notice it.

“You’re ridiculous,” Levi murmurs, still smiling.

“Yeah, but you still want to smooch me,” Nico grins.

Levi rolls his eyes. “Not when you use words like ‘smooch’, no.”

Nico leans in ever so slowly until their lips are barely brushing together. “Liar.”

“Well, that’s definitely not gonna make me wan-“

He doesn’t get to finish, because Nico kisses him so hard that Levi’s breath gets knocked out of him. He swats at Nico’s shoulder, but once he makes contact with his skin he doesn’t move away, choosing instead to dig his fingers into the muscles until Nico groans.

The kiss itself is nothing new, but there’s something about being able to go as far as they want without having to justify themselves that makes every nerve ending in Levi’s body light up.

The realization that he wants nothing more than to touch every part of Nico’s body and have him touch every part of his comes so suddenly that it crashes down on him like a freezing cold shower that immediately evaporates on contact with his flaming hot skin.

“What do you want to do? If you want to do something, that is,” Nico asks, breathless.

Levi’s head spins faster the more he tries to focus on just one of the million thoughts that run through his mind. He wants everything and he wants it all now.

“I don’t know, just…” he mumbles against Nico’s mouth. “Clothes. Off.”

It’s not that hard, since they’re barely wearing anything anyway, but witnessing Nico lift his hips and consequently Levi himself to get his swimming costume off with seemingly no effort definitely does something to him.

He tucks his thumbs inside his own pants and pushes them down, trying to make the chair creak as little as possible as he steps out of them. It’s probably the least sexy or arousing moment ever, but Nico doesn’t seem to mind, if the way he attaches his lips to Levi’s collarbone means anything.

They’re naked, sitting on top of each other, kissing and touching, and Levi gets so hard so incredibly fast that he gets lightheaded. Between that and the fact that Nico’s hands are sure in the path they follow, leaving a trail of raised goosebumps, Levi feels like he’s gonna pass out.

“I’ve been waiting for so long,” Nico breathes.

Levi scoffs. “Dramatic. It’s only been two weeks.”

Nico shakes his head, leaving one kiss on the corner of Levi’s lips. He runs his hands up and down Levi’s back, every time straying just a bit past his hips and tickling the tops of Levi’s cheeks.

“You must have no idea of what you look like,” he mumbles. “Two weeks only being allowed to look…”

He trails off, getting distracted by Levi’s lips again, but he gets his point across. Levi nods even though no question had been asked, brushing his hands down Nico’s front and not stopping despite the way he can feel his own heart beating in his throat.

“Can I?” he asks, voice just barely above a breath.

“I would die if you didn’t.”

“Dramatic,” Levi accuses again.

Nico opens his mouth, probably to insult him at this point, but Levi interrupts him by wrapping his fingers around his cock and dragging his dry fist upwards once.

“Fucking fuck, fuck,” Nico groans.

Levi chuckles and keeps going, getting confidence from every sound that comes out of Nico’s mouth. He spits in his hand to try and make his tugs more smooth, and Nico reacts by suddenly grabbing Levi’s cock as well.

It’s so much after so long that Levi literally jumps, but immediately melts into it, moving his hips in time with Nico’s tugs and trying to remind himself to give back just as good as he’s getting.

The sounds of nature around them are loud enough to cover their moans and grunts, but it’s nice, so nice, being out here, just the two of them. With their dicks out, getting each other off. What a dream.

“I’m embarrassingly close,” Nico gasps.

Levi moans and kisses him again, shuffling closer and doubling his efforts, moving his hand slower but tightening his hold. Nico seems to appreciate it, because he pulls back and sinks his teeth into Levi’s shoulder, his free hand squeezing Levi’s hip.

They go from enthusiastic to purposeful, the first orgasm in too long threatening to wash over them both any second now.

Nico smiles into the kiss when Levi gasps loudly, and that’s it, there’s no way he can keep it in anymore.

Every muscle in Levi’s body tenses up, and a grunt gets ripped out of his throat just as he spurts all over Nico’s knuckles. Nico keeps pumping him through it until Levi shivers and subtly moves his hips away from his touch, suddenly too much.

“That was fucking worth it,” Levi breathes heavily.

Nico hums and rocks into Levi’s now slack hold, so Levi forces himself to get back into the moment. He quickly looks Nico over, from his flushed cheeks to the muscles moving as he tries to get some friction on himself, and decides in a split second that he wants to put his mouth all over him.

He’s going to start from just one part for now, though.

“Why-where are you-don’t-“ Nico stutters as he feels Levi slide off his lap and onto the chair between his knees.

“Can I suck you off?” Levi asks.

A string of curse words are the answer he gets, along with Nico nodding so hard that he has hair flopping all over his face. Levi wastes no time in grabbing the base of Nico’s cock and wrapping his lips around the head, sucking gently.

Nico moans and puts one hand on the back of Levi’s head, not pushing, just touching, but the simple idea is enough to make Levi start working his fist and bobbing his head up and down. His other hand is splayed on the bottom of Nico’s stomach, feeling his muscles quiver, and if he hadn’t just come he would be _so_ hard right now.

“Fuck, I’m gonna come,” Nico gasps after a couple of minutes.

Levi nods and moves back, lips making a _pop_ noise when they come off. He keeps jerking Nico off as he licks his lips and looks down at him, head tilted to the side as he takes in the view.

He looks amazing, all tan and sweaty, but the best part is the way he’s looking back at Levi with a sparkle in his eyes, mouth hanging open and soft sounds coming out of it. Levi smiles back and rubs his thumb over the head of Nico’s cock, and apparently that’s enough.

Nico comes with a strangled moan all over his own stomach, collapsing against the chair. It creaks louder than it has so far, threatening to give out, but until it does Levi doesn’t plan on worrying about it.

“Come here,” Nico says, making grabby hands.

Levi wants nothing more than to lie down on top of him and never move, but there’s a part of him that tells him it would be more fun to be a little shit, and who is he to deny himself that?

“Ew, no, you’re gross,” Levi makes a disgusted face, shuffling away from him.

“It’s your stuff as well,” Nico points out.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say,” Levi sighs exaggeratedly.

Nico makes a displeased sound and sits up before Levi can even have the time to think about reacting, wrapping his arms around Levi’s shoulders and pulling him up with him.

“Oh my god, you caveman, let me down!” Levi shrieks, trying to free himself.

“Me Tarzan, you Jane,” Nico grunts in Levi’s ear.

“You idiot, more like.”

No matter how hard Levi tries to make it for Nico to walk, he still manages to get them to the showers, and even turn on the water in one.

“C’mon, let’s clean up,” Nico says as he finally lets him go.

Levi immediately tries to run away, but Nico blocks the door. Pretending not to be bothered, Levi crosses his arms over his chest and tilts his chin up.

“I’m clean already,” he shrugs.

Nico rolls his eyes at him as he steps under the shower. Levi watches him unabashedly, biting his lower lip and eyeing him up and down. Damn.

Before he can even think about what he’s doing, Levi finds himself following Nico and plastering himself to his back, forehead pressed between his shoulder blades.

“Alright?” Nico asks as he squirts soap in his hands.

Levi nods against him. He feels one of Nico’s hands reach back to rub over his side, and he feels himself flush all over.

“You know when I said we can take it slow?” Levi says quietly.

Nico hums as an answer. Levi grabs his wandering hand and pushes his own against it, feeling just exactly how much bigger it is and shivering.

“We can… but we also don’t have to if we don’t want to,” he continues.

He knows Nico is smirking even before he turns around to look him in the eye.

“Yeah?” Nico asks. “You sure?”

Levi reaches around and gently runs his fingers over the patch of hair at the base of Nico’s cock.

“I’m sure if you’re sure,” Levi shrugs.

Nico chuckles but he sounds like he’s having a hard time catching his breath. Levi can relate.

“I’m sure,” Nico confirms.

“Great, then,” Levi smiles. “Glad we’re on the same page.”

“Totally.”

Nico tilts his head down to try and get a kiss, but Levi steps back and out of the shower. Nico turns around, confused, but Levi just smirks and waves at him before disappearing down the hallway.

“I’ll start without you if you don’t hurry!” he calls out behind him.

The sound of wet, heavy footsteps running after him is the last thing he hears before being tackled onto the bed.


	14. Day 14

“This place being so quiet feels so weird,” Nico pants as he throws all the pillows off the side of the bed.

“Let’s make it not so quiet, then,” Levi shrugs.

A shiver visibly runs through Nico, but he tries to cover it up by grunting and crawling over Levi’s body, settling between his parted legs and openly looking at his face as he lets their groins rub together.

Levi lets him have this, gasping and wrapping his legs around Nico’s waist, silently asking for more. He’s not sure how much more exactly, but definitely more than what is going on right now. Nico seems to be wondering the same thing, because he stops just a breath before kissing him.

“So… what’s on the menu?”

A loud laugh gets punched out of Levi, but it works in getting some of the nervousness off of him. He really wants this day, even if it’s just this day, to be as perfect as possible. So far, it looks like everything is headed for that direction.

“After that, I should just close the whole restaurant,” he lifts one eyebrow.

“Mh, so there’s eating involved…” Nico murmurs as he bends down to mouth along Levi’s collarbone.

“You’re the worst,” Levi complains, but it’s too breathy to be believable.

Nico moves up to bite the skin under Levi’s ear. “I’m quite good, actually.”

“Cocky.”

“I can prove it to you,” Nico shrugs, looking up at him through his lashes.

If he keeps talking, Levi is pretty sure he’s just going to implode and that would be quite a waste of potential. So, instead, he bites his lower lip and nods.

“Just so we’re clear,” Nico says after he leans up to drop a kiss on his lips. “How far do we want to go?”

Levi breathes out slowly. Truth is, he has absolutely no idea. He both feels like he wants everything and like he’s never been this terrified in his life.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “Let’s take it step by step and see where it goes?”

“Alright,” Nico agrees. “Step by step.”

He kisses Levi slowly, surely, like it’s something they’ve been doing for years rather than for days. Levi melts into it, letting go of that same restless feeling that tells him he must keep moving instead of just lying there, and enjoys being wrapped up in Nico’s arms and getting kissed like nothing else matters.

He can always – hell, he definitely will – reciprocate later.

Levi gets pulled out of his thoughts by Nico slowly moving his hands down his front, fingertips catching on his nipples and then using his nails to leave a trail of goosebumps all the way to his hips. Levi shivers and stretches his hands behind him, grabbing the headboard and taking a deep breath in.

They’re taking it slow, because for the first time since they’ve known each other, they can. There’s nobody waiting for them anywhere, there are no rules to follow except their own, so they’re free to take as long as they want.

Well, kind of. Nico is leaving tiny kisses all over Levi’s skin and it’s making him grow harder with every second that passes, but still. Step by step.

“In case it wasn’t obvious already, I really, really, really like you,” Nico mumbles against Levi’s hipbone.

“Likewise.”

Nico smiles at him, then walks his hand up Levi’s leg and wraps his fingers around Levi’s cock. It’s expected, but it still makes Levi jump, then moan and finally relax into it.

“I would really like to suck you off,” Nico says, as if he’s talking about the weather.

Levi wants to glare at him and make him regret playing with his feelings like that, but very quickly decides that it’s not worth it. What _is_ worth it, instead, is nodding and focusing his eyes on Nico’s lips as he wraps them around the head of Levi’s cock.

He sucks and strokes with his hand what he can’t quite reach, focused and meticulous, and Levi never wants this feeling to end, ever. He keeps at it for a while, the room filled with the quiet sounds of sucking and Levi’s soft moans.

“Good?” Nico asks after a while, popping off and kissing the thin skin at the juncture of Levi’s thigh and his groin.

Levi flinches when the kiss turns into a bite, hands reaching down to grab Nico’s hair and pull him away. Nico smirks like he knows exactly what he’s doing, hand still moving at a slow but regular pace. Levi can’t catch his breath.

“Yeah, good,” Levi confirms.

Nico hums and slides two fingers down the inside of Levi’s thigh, pushing it out when he reaches his knee. “More?”

“Sure.”

He’s playing it cool, but his heart is beating so hard Levi can barely hear anything else, and he can’t decide if it means he’s terrified or extremely excited. Maybe a healthy mix of the two.

There’s definitely a hint of overthinking starting to creep through the arousal, but Levi decides to push it down and away immediately. Not now, not ever, even. He doesn’t have anything to worry about.

Nico seems to notice Levi’s quiet internal conflict, because he abandons his previous plan and crawls up Levi’s body, lying almost entirely on top of him.

Levi pretends to get crushed under him, but in all honesty he’s glad for the break. It feels much better for Nico’s face to be up here, eyes looking directly into his, arms coming up to wrap around his back. Still, he realizes it takes away from the moment, and it doesn’t make him feel good.

“Ugh, I’m ruining it,” Levi rolls his eyes at himself.

“Not at all,” Nico shakes his head.

“I don’t know why I can’t be, like, spontaneous and fun and-“

Nico pushes his hips forward against Levi’s, showing rather than telling him how hard he still is. Levi gets effectively shut up by that, a small smile appearing on his face.

“You’re going to have to accept the fact that I’m genuinely obsessed with you,” Nico says slowly and clearly.

Levi just looks him in the eyes, somehow convincing himself to trust him once and for all.

“That’s lame,” is what he decides to say after a while.

Nico bursts out laughing. “You’re so-!”

He gets interrupted by Levi pushing himself up and kissing him deeply, using the momentum to roll both of them over and straddle Nico’s hips.

That’s better. Much better, in fact. Like this, Levi has control over most of what happens, and it feels good. Nico doesn’t seem to mind, if the way his mouth hangs open means anything.

“Now, where were we?” Levi smiles innocently, grabbing Nico’s hands lying uselessly by his sides and guiding them to grab his own ass.

“I think I was about to give you the best blowjob of your life,” Nico quickly recovers, squeezing Levi’s cheeks.

Levi doesn’t even try to hide the way his cock jumps at the thought, but he’s still reluctant to change positions.

“Raincheck?” Levi tries. “I think I like your face up here for now.”

“Whatever you want,” Nico nods. “Although, may I suggest…”

He takes one hand off Levi and reaches under the bed, blindly feeling for something before making a victorious sound and pulling out a small bottle of clear liquid.

“A few of these were left at the door,” Nico explains.

“That’s literally so creepy” Levi cringes.

Nico shrugs and pretends to throw the bottle away, but Levi catches his arm before he can actually move too far. He feels himself blush when he notices the way Nico is smirking, but he figures that he has nothing to lose.

“Creepy, but useful,” Levi shrugs.

He looks down at the bottle of lube for a few seconds, and it feels like it looks back at him, daring him to do it, whatever is flowing around in his head.

“Do you take requests?” Levi lifts an eyebrow.

Nico licks his lips and nods. Levi feels fire erupt in his lower belly. No trace of anxiety or worry anymore, just the desperate need to get off. And Nico is nothing but up for it, it seems.

Levi reaches down to grab Nico’s wrist and brings it up between their faces. Nico flexes his fingers once, waiting for Levi to do, or say, something.

“I’ve been obsessed with your hands since the first moment I saw you,” Levi says, tracing the lines on the top with his own finger.

“Want me to use them?” Nico asks.

His voice is low and rough, and it makes Levi shiver. They’re dragging this out so much, but he absolutely never wants it to end.

Levi nods, barely breathing as he uncaps the bottle and squeezes way too much of the content on Nico’s fingers. He closes it and throws it away as soon as he decides he’s done, wrapping his arms around Nico’s shoulders and kissing him.

Nico kisses back, his clean hand brushing down Levi’s back all the way to his ass, squeezing one cheek before spreading it and reaching down with one wet finger, rubbing the skin behind Levi’s balls.

“Breathe,” Nico mumbles against Levi’s lips.

Levi literally deflates, exhaling and pushing back against Nico’s touch. “I’m breathing.”

Nico hums, pressing with his fingers and spreading lube everywhere while he pulls back to kiss down the side of Levi’s neck. Levi can’t pick one feeling to focus on, so he doesn’t; he tilts his head to give Nico more space and shifts on his legs to be more comfortable.

He gets so relaxed that he barely reacts when Nico presses directly on his hole, one finger sliding in easily.

It’s nothing new, something he’s experienced countless times even by himself, and the familiarity helps. It barely feels like anything anyway, but the intrusion is welcome, especially because Nico’s fingers are long and definitely know what they’re doing.

He feels it more when Nico adds a second finger and pushes them inside, so slowly that Levi feels every single ridge and movement. They’re both sweating in the summer heat, but they’re too focused on each other to care.

“Yeah?” Nico whispers.

Levi squeezes around his fingers, groans, and nods. “Fuck yeah.”

Nico hums again, this time sounding more affected by what’s happening, and presses his thumb on the outside as he starts moving his fingers in and out.

It’s so fucking good. Levi holds on for dear life to Nico’s shoulders and makes little movements with his hips, gasping and freezing when he gets the angle just right.

“More,” he moans right under Nico’s ear.

Nico obliges, teasing a third finger at the bottom of the other two and gradually fitting it in.

The whole thing is not particularly hectic or lively, but it doesn’t need to be. Levi is moaning quietly in Nico’s mouth, fingers digging into his shoulders so hard that he’s absolutely going to leave marks. Nico doesn’t seem to mind, anyway.

Three fingers deep, Nico keeps pushing them in and dragging them out, going for that sweet, sweet spot and mostly succeeding. Levi has no idea whether he has been breathing or not for this whole time. Probably not. He’s burning up from the inside out.

The pressure in Levi’s lower belly builds and builds, and he starts grunting every time Nico pulls his fingers out only to fuck them back in. Levi grabs his own cock to take some of the edge off, but all it does is make him bite his tongue so he doesn’t scream.

Nico moves his other hand to press down from the outside, and Levi feels himself snap in half like a twig. He clamps his legs around Nico’s hips, squeezes tight around his fingers and lets out a long moan, forehead pressed against Nico’s shoulder and eyes shut tight.

“Don’t stop, don’t stop,” Levi chants through his gasps.

The movements of Nico’s fingers go from long strokes to deep pressure against just the perfect spots. Levi is starting to see stars behind his closed eyelids, or maybe they’re fireworks, or maybe it’s whatever the fuck, he doesn’t care, because he’s coming so hard he loses himself for a few seconds.

Nico keeps fucking him through it until Levi groans and pushes himself up on unsteady legs, trying to catch his breath.

“Holy fucking shit,” Levi sighs after a couple of seconds, sitting back down on Nico’s lap.

Slowly but surely, he starts feeling Nico’s fingers gently brushing up and down his back, bringing him back to the task at hand, which is poking him in the leg quite insistently.

Levi lazily moves his hips so that Nico’s cock slides between their bellies, taking advantage of the mix of Levi’s cum, sweat and the residual lube on Nico’s hand to make it all wetter. And to make one hell of a mess, but that’s what showers are for.

“You make me feel like I’m on fire,” Nico whispers right in Levi’s ear.

His voice is low and breathy, hands grabbing Levi’s hips and squeezing them tight. Levi lets him manoeuvre his body however he wants, wholly satisfied and pliable.

“C’mon, I’m cramping up,” Levi complains.

Nico laughs into his neck, but it’s a strangled sound. Levi goes to say something else, but Nico doesn’t let him, kissing him instead, surely as a way to shut him up. Levi doesn’t mind, not really, fading arousal fizzing on his lower back.

It doesn’t take him long at all to come, basically humping Levi’s belly until he chokes up and adds to the mess between them. Levi reminds himself to give him an hour long blowjob in the near future.

They take their time coming down from their highs, petting each other slowly and enjoying the utter silence and peace. That is, until they start sticking to each other and the whole thing gains a slightly gross edge.

“Shower?” Nico suggests.

Levi hums. “Yeah, I’m kind of not clean anymore.”

Nico scoffs, but holds Levi tight to his body as he stands up and walks over to the bathroom, letting him down in front of the still open shower. He starts fretting over the temperature of the water immediately, only turning around to nod at Levi to get in the shower.

“Wait, slow down,” Levi grabs his arm.

“What’s wrong?” Nico asks, fully turning around to face him.

Levi just smiles up at him for a few seconds. He’s sweaty and totally unkept, hair messy and beard starting to make the bottom of his jaw darker, and Levi is sure he doesn’t look that much better himself, but both of their faces are flushed and their smiles are happy, and that’s all that matters.

He steps forward and wraps his arms around Nico’s waist, head pressed against his chest. Nico hugs him back, head resting on top of Levi’s and squeezing him, neither of them saying anything.

Outside, the garden is as peaceful as ever. The waves crash against the shore, the birds sing in the trees, the sun beats down on the surface of the pool.

Nothing has changed, but nothing is the same. Two weeks is all it took for everything to look exactly as it did before while still having been turned completely upside down.

Levi smiles to himself, feeling warm and comfortable, more at ease than he’s felt in a long time. Nico squeezes the back of his neck and buries his fingers in Levi’s hair. They’re still not speaking, just breathing in sync as the room fills with steam.

Summer is almost over, but there’s an endless amount of bright, happy days waiting for them. There may be a few rainy days trying to confuse and mess up everything in the middle, but it will be fine, Levi is sure.

He’s – they are, Levi reminds himself – going to go back to rainy old Seattle, and Levi had been convinced that it would be as glum and depressing as he’d left it, but maybe it’s not the case. Maybe it’s going to be just as rainy, but it certainly won’t be sad.

Nico pokes one finger in Levi’s side, then another, and another, causing him to laugh and try to step away from him, but Nico won’t let him. He holds Levi close and bends down to kiss him on the cheek, then on the corner of his mouth, then finally square on the mouth.

“We’re gonna have so much fun together,” Nico smiles.

“Are you talking short or long term?” Levi lifts one eyebrow.

He’s trying to rile him up, absolutely not done with enjoying the freedom of being in this place, but Nico doesn’t give in, not yet. Instead, he brushes the wet hair off of Levi’s forehead and just looks at him.

Still, there aren’t a lot of words said, but now that the actions can speak for them, they’re not needed. All Levi needs to know is that he feels like there’s an army of butterflies flying around in his stomach, and he doesn’t mind them one bit, for once.

“What are you thinking about?” Nico asks, voice barely above a breath.

Levi is thinking about a lot of things, but they’re not confused or scary. They’re reassuring and make him feel hopeful, and that’s all one could ever want, isn’t it? Still, he doesn’t tell Nico that, because he would rather to keep his dignity for just a while longer.

“I’m thinking that you really stink,” Levi makes a face.

Nico rolls his eyes, but he can’t hide his smile even as he bends down to pick up Levi and throw him in the shower.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, let me know with a comment or hit me up on [Tumblr](https://shesbreathless.tumblr.com/)!


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